Operation: World Clash
by strangemind92
Summary: What happens when the DC area is plagued by a serial killer that leaves nothing behind? Our favorite VA couple steps in to help solve the case and track down a strigoi turned serial killer. Set 1 year post LS. Rated M for language, adult themes, and violence.
1. Chapter 1

Gibbs was sitting at his desk, staring at his Starbucks cup as if it held all the answers. _"Dammit, this is the fourth case this month!"_ He thought, re-reading the autopsy report that he received after the case they had been notified to late last night. They were dealing with some crazed serial killer who was targeting naval officers and they had no leads! No witnesses and no evidence other than the bodies themselves. Gibbs sighed and drained his coffee as McGee and DiNozzo stepped off the elevator, arguing rather loudly about the case and their personal theories.

"I'm telling you, Probie, it has to be a jealous lover or something! Always look for the obvious answers!"

"And I'm telling you, Tony, that there's no way that this is about love or cheating or whatever crazy idea you have. It's a serial killer who's taking random Naval Officers who happen to visit near the marinas at night or something. Besides, if you're theory was correct, then why are there 4 victims? 3 men and 1 woman, seriously Tony, most people have their preferences…" McGee mumbled the last sentence more to himself but earned a glare from Abby, who had walked up with some potentially interesting news from Dr. Mallard.

"Really Tim? You don't think that someone could be interested in either gender? I know the army had that 'don't ask don't tell policy' but I thought you were more 'advanced' than that?" Abby admonished, using air quotes. She shook her head as McGee began to splutter his response (and failing royally) before turning back to Gibbs, "Gibbs! I just came back from Ducky and he wanted you to see this…" Abby held out the autopsy reports on their 4 victims. She took a deep breath while Gibbs stared at her expectantly then dropped her voice to just above a whisper so only Gibbs and Ziva, who had moved closer, could hear, "Ducky noticed, well Jimmy noticed, something odd about the DNA of the victims… and… well…" She trailed off, unsure of what to say, a rarity for Abby, but she, after another stare from Gibbs picked up where she left off, "wethinktheymightbenothumanorsomething," she finished in a rush.

"Abby, I'm sorry, but I did not understand what you said, can you say that slower?" Ziva placed her hand on the woman's shoulder, giving her a soft look.

Abby nodded and took another deep breath and motioned McGee and DiNozzo closer. The four of them leaned in while Abby whispered, "we think that they might not be humans… or something…" Abby looked around, her cheeks tinting red as if someone heard her and questioned her sanity.

"Well, then what do you and Duck think they are?" Gibbs inquired, keeping his ton impassive, but staring at Abby with concern.

Abby opened her mouth to respond when a commanding voice boomed above them, "I hope this little pow-wow is about our recent case and not something else?" Everyone turned to look up and see Director Vance looking at them, his eyebrow raised, a toothpick twitching in between his teeth. Abby nodded at him, her face turning redder about what she had been about to reveal to her team and worrying that they would think she had slept in her coffin one times too many!

Director Vance nodded, "well good because I have some information about some... experts who might be able to offer some insight in how to catch our serial killer." He motioned for the group to join him in his office where they could speak in private. Gibbs and his team followed up, silently asking each other what the Hell Vance meant by "experts". Weren't they the "experts" in solving crimes that were about Naval officers?

* * *

(DPOV)

I sighed and tried to tune out the incessant argument that was going on between my charge and girlfriend. They were good friends, I knew that, but I didn't understand their constant bickering since it almost bordered on volatile. I rubbed my temples as I stared at the screen that was above the Queen's desk, staring at the 4 images on the screen. We had been contacted by the NCIS director from Washington DC to help identify the serial killer and help capture/kill the person (or persons) responsible. Even though we hadn't been told, we could tell that the 4 victims had 3 things in common with one another: 1, they were all naval officers, 2, they were all found near the marina at night near or on the same docks, and 3, they were not human.

"Chris, seriously, stop bitching, will you? I know you've been busy with going back and forth between the academies and here with your Moroi defense programs, but you don't have to be irritated with me just because you don't have the same amount of stamina us Dhampirs have," Rose said, falling into the chair I had been sitting in previously. She muttered something else along the lines of "not getting enough" as she pulled the latest autopsy file from the desk to her lap, scanning the information quickly.

"Oh, bite me, Rosie. I know you were jealous that I got to spend more time with your 'Russian God' than you did this semester, but you can stop with the snark you know," my charge, Christian huffed with false distain, using air quotes around my strange nickname/reputation I had earned among the students back at St. Vlad's.

"You two need to stop arguing! We have a serious problem on our hands. We know that Strigoi have been getting more and more active, but this is serious! We have the human authorities deeply involved in the case. They didn't even know to alert the Alchemists until it was way too late. The Alchemists refuse to step in at this point because it would be more of a hassle than it's worth to get everything away from the authorities at this point. This is the first time in our recent history where we will be working in conjunction with humans with our world directly. We must take this threat seriously and need to make sure we can show the humans we can handle this professionally and efficiently. This could go a long way in helping our relations with human government agencies and potentially open a communication with them when it comes to these types of cases in the future!" Lissa stepped out from behind her desk and stood in front of us, staring pointedly at Christian and Rose, making them look like scolded children.

I snorted and turned off the monitor that hung on the wall above Lissa's desk and gathered the files from the desk and Rose's hands, "she's right. You and I, Rose, are going to have to act with the utmost professionalism when we deal with this team directly. We will be acting both as representatives of Lissa, but more importantly, as 'ambassadors' of our kind. This could be the break we are looking for in keeping track of Strigoi movements without them becoming suspicious of our actions. Besides, not wanting to sink to their level, but if Strigoi are willing to band together AND use humans against us, it might be prudent to utilize that same resource and maybe, just maybe, get out in front of them while we can." I watched as Rose's expressions went from mocked scolding, to irritation, to understanding and resignation.

"I know, Comrade. I know that this could help," her double meaning was not lost on me. She knew I still struggled with my nightmares and guilt, but it was getting easier every day. With one final sigh, I gathered my duster and Rose's leather jacket from the couch where they had been placed when we first walked in. I held Rose's jacket out for her, then shrugged my own on before we said our goodbyes and left to get packed and ready to depart from the Court's airstrip to Regan International Airport, our destination? NCIS headquarters.

* * *

 **A/N: I had this idea floating around in my head for a while but couldn't find a way to get it onto paper and make it sound good. This chapter is short as sort of an introduction, but let me know if this is a good start or what you think! This will mostly be written in Dimitri's POV, but I may switch to Rose or Third POV depending on what's needed!**

 **Please R & R (nothing is too harsh, so bring it on! I can always improve!)  
Thanks,**

 **strangemind**


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: I don't own the VA characters or NCIS characters! Only the plot!**

* * *

A few hours later and we had received confirmation from Director Vance that an agent would meet us at the airport and would bring us in so we could be debriefed on the full situation and offer our "expertise" that the agents had been unable to notice. We were told that we would be staying at the house of the lead agent instead of a hotel. It would be easier to guard and that the headquarters would be warded ahead of our arrival just to keep the humans we would be working with protected. Rose was practically bouncing in her seat, a mix of adrenaline and nerves about having an "actual goal that would be easy to achieve and see the results of" quoting her from when we had been getting packed. I pulled a Western out of my pocket and began to read, slinging my arm casually around her shoulders, pulling her close to me from my enjoyment and to also calm her down slightly.

"This will be exciting, Comrade! I know it's serious that we have Strigoi practically knocking on the human's preverbal doorstep, but it'll be nice to be away from prying eyes so we can maybe enjoy a night or two to ourselves. Maybe go on a date?" Rose seemed almost hesitant, shy even with her request. I smiled and tightened my grip on her shoulders before placing a kiss softly on her lips.

"Of course, we will, Roza. We need to keep up some professionalism when we work, but the nights we aren't will be ours. Besides, we still should keep up our training and I have yet to take you on a proper date. We will find time to go, I promise. Maybe we can visit a museum or see some of the 'touristy stuff'? Whatever we can find where we can just be ourselves, OK?" I sighed against her cheek, relishing in her scent and proximity, feeling my own anxiety slowly ebbing away. I gave her another kiss softly on her lips, which she reciprocated just as softly. Soon, however, I felt her shift and the kiss became more urgent and insisting. She sighed against my mouth, her lips parting just enough for my tongue to gain entrance into her mouth. I groaned against her mouth as our tongues began to clash, fighting for dominance as they always did, and as her hands snaked around my neck, pulling herself onto my lap. All too soon, however, the seatbelt sign turned back on and we broke apart, breathing rapidly and adjusting ourselves back into our seats as the plane descended.

We placed our gun and stakes in their respective holders before grabbing our documents that authorized conceal and carry in the human world. I grabbed down Rose's duffle bag then my own and we made our way to baggage claim to get our suit cases. Once we had gotten them, we made our way over to curb pickup, keeping an eye out for the agent that was supposed to pick us up. Rose spotted him first and shook my arm, nodding in towards where a well-built man was standing, holding a sign that read "Hathaway/Belikov". We made our way through the crowd of bustling people and stopped in front of the man.

"Well, well, well, it's about time you showed. I was beginning to get rather bored just standing here." The man scoffed, looking us up and down, although he did linger on Roza a little longer than I would have liked, causing me to tense up and narrow my eyes slightly. Rose caught my change and shook her head slightly, snapping me out of my jealous stint.

"I'd hate to keep you bored, but I don't even know your name. It's rather hard to entertain a total stranger, you know," Rose said flippantly, holding out her hand.

The man took it with a grin on his face and shook her hand then mine. "Name's Special Agent Tony DiNozzo. _Very_ Special Agent Tony DiNozzo." He laughed then, with a crooked finger, began to walk back towards a black Charger. I whistled softly as I took it in. I had never been much of a car man, but I could appreciate the car for what it was, a power house. The agent, DiNozzo, popped the trunk open and I put Rose and my bags into it and slammed it shut before opening the rear door for Rose. She snorted and rolled her eyes before sliding gracefully into the back of the Charger. I closed her door then slid into the front, next to DiNozzo and strapped myself in. DiNozzo strapped in, started the car, and pulled out towards the NCIS building, chatting animatedly with Rose while I tuned out, watching DC fly past me.

"Now, before we go in, I need to know, are you armed and do you have your papers in order?" DiNozzo turned to Rose and myself, glancing nonchalantly between the two of us. Rose and I nodded and I grabbed our paperwork from inside my duster, showing that we both were permitted to carry a concealed firearm and miscellaneous weapon. DiNozzo's eyebrow shot up, earning a groan and eye-roll from Rose, before handing the papers back and exiting the car, "grab what you need from the bags in the back. We might be here awhile so you won't have time to change or anything, if what you're wearing is comfortable and everything. By the way, what did your papers mean by 'miscellaneous weapon'?"

Rose snorted and shrugged, "you'll just have to trust us, pretty boy, at least until we can have a chance to sit down and discuss things properly." DiNozzo started at the title but shrugged it off and headed towards the visitor's desk to get our passes and allow us entry to the building until further notice.

Once we got our passes and had our fingerprints and pictures taken, we were lead through to the metal detectors where we had to show our weapons and paperwork to the security guard. I noticed, with luck, that the guard was a Dhampir like us, meaning we could show our stakes without being questioned and/or detained. Rose picked up on this as well and we both pulled our guns out, flashing our stakes holstered on our waist and leg respectively (since I had managed to convince Roza to always carry two stakes now, after the whole debacle with the former queen). The guard nodded at the guns and paperwork, then his eyes flicked to the stakes and he nodded again before handing the paperwork and guns back, waving us through without a passing glance.

"You'll be welcome to go anywhere you'd like on the main floor without an escort, but we ask that if you go up to our offices or the labs and garage, that you are with one of us at all times, for security reasons. There is also a gym in the basement that you are welcome to use at any time, but we ask that you notify us if you're down there. We do have a few secure areas down there and don't want you two to get caught up in something as silly as a misunderstanding," DiNozzo looked at us with a glint in his eye as he hit the elevator button.

"Can we use our cell phones or are those off limits while we're here?" Rose asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

I gave her a look but she waved it off, locking her eyes with DiNozzo who shrugged and called out once the doors opened, "any rules on phones, boss?"

"Just don't discuss anything that needs to be kept confidential, and keep cell phone calls to a minimum here and in the labs, mainly for Abby's sake in the labs," an older man, looking to be in his mid-60's, stated back from where he was standing, in front of a monitor that was like ours back in Lissa's office. Rose nodded and whipped out her phone, sending a text to Lissa, letting her know we made it safely and were about to go to be debriefed.

The older man looked back from the monitor and stared at Rose and myself, his gaze lingering slightly on Rose, but his was more wistful and almost pained, like he was seeing something from the past, but it disappeared quickly as another man and a woman walked hurriedly down the stairs. He was snapped out of his reverie as the woman walked up to him and whispered something in his ear. The older man nodded and beckoned the three of us to follow the man and woman back up the stairs. We followed behind the pair, while DiNozzo and the older man followed behind us. The woman knocked on a door and we entered into an office where another woman, a secretary of some sort, was typing away at her computer. She looked up as we entered and she hit a buzzer on her phone before motioning for us to wait a moment.

"Ah, these must be the experts that are here to help with our current case yes? Please come in, I trust your flight was enjoyable?" The door opened to reveal another man who looked to be in his 50's with dark skin and shrewd dark eyes. He held his hand out to Rose and myself, "Director Vance of NCIS, it's a pleasure to meet you two, Guardian Hathaway, Guardian Belikov," he acknowledged us with our proper titles. This man knew about us, there was no doubt about that, which would make part of our explanations easier since we would have a human who believed us. He stepped aside for the group to enter his office then he closed and locked the door before settling behind his desk. He gestured for everyone to take a seat and folded his hands on-top of the desk, "I told them that you were experts in who our potential serial killer is and could offer insight in how to capture or take down this menace, but I didn't explain much more than that, figuring it would be easier for you to make whatever facts that were necessary known, correct?"

I nodded but turned to Rose since, despite the fact I was the senior Guardian, she was still Head Guardian and the direct representative for the Queen and had the more senior position over me. Rose raised her eyebrows at me then nodded once before standing up, clearing her throat, and reaching into her leather jacket, pulling out a silver stake, "well, this is as good a place to start as any," she motioned to the stake before turning to the now shocked agents, "this is my miscellaneous weapon I can carry. In fact, I have two of these," she pulled the second stake out and placed them both on the table in front of her then stood there, waiting for the questions to begin.

I was surprised that no one seemed to be jumping at the chance to harp on Roza for literally showing two very dangerous and, when it came to the human world, very comical weapons but no one seemed to get beyond the rather large silver stakes sitting in front of them. After a few more awkward minutes, the man who had led us into the room seemed to warm up, eyeing the stakes warily. He cleared his throat and looked up at Rose, "I think we should start with introductions? Then maybe we can get an explanation as to why you are here and why you carry rather… odd weapons?" Rose nodded and tilted her head to the side, waiting for the man to continue. He sighed and stood up, "my name is Special Agent Tim McGee. This is Special Agent Ziva David and Special Agent Leroy Gibbs," McGee motioned to the woman who had been in front of them and the older man who had followed, "you already know DiNozzo since he picked you up," DiNozzo nodded his head in recognition before returning is attention to the silver weapons on the table. "You'll be meeting Abby Sciuto, our forensics specialist, and Dr. Mallard, our medical examiner and his assistant Mr. Palmer later, I'm sure."

Rose nodded at each person as they were named then she smiled slightly, her eyes glinting dangerously with a snarky comment or two, but she managed to keep the introductions rather civil, "my name is Guardian Rosemarie Hathaway, or just Rose or Guardian Hathaway. The man next to me is my partner Guardian Dimitri Belikov," she gestured at me, unsure of where to go from there with formalities, or in our case, informalities.

I nodded from my seat and grabbed Rose's hand quickly before dropping it, "you can just call me Dimitri or Guardian Belikov, whichever is easier, since a lot of this will probably stay between us and the rest of your team. I'm also, in informal settings, Rose's boyfriend, but for all intents and purposes, I am her partner during this case," I shrugged, figuring it would be easier to get things out in the open rather than try to hide anything. One look at Gibbs and I knew that if he found out the hard way, things could get ugly quickly.

Rose's smile stayed a moment longer before her, as she called it, Guardian mask slid into place and she turned to business, "well, now that we know each other's names, let me answer your burning questions: yes, that is a stake," she motioned towards the silver again, "and yes it's real and very deadly. As you can imagine, stakes are only good against one type of enemy: vampires," McGee snorted and looked like he wanted to interject but Rose held her hand up, "let me finish, please," he nodded and sat back down. Rose stared at him for a moment then resumed her run down of our world, "well, here's the thing: while vampires are real, they are a bit more diverse than what you've seen on TV and probably much more terrifying, at least those that we kill. There are 3 races of vampires: the Strigoi, Moroi, and Dhampir.

"The Moroi are mortal, living vampires who, like everyone else, live, reproduce, grow old, and die. They do drink blood but also need to eat regular food, albeit in smaller portions, and can use magic. They are also sensitive to the sun and have heightened eyesight, but can be out in the sun without dying. Seriously, think of the whitest person you know and multiply their sun aversion by, like, two. Dhampir are half breeds because of Moroi vampires breeding with humans. Although, genetics being what they are, Dhampirs are more commonly born of a Moroi and another Dhampir. Finally, Strigoi are evil incarnate. They are immortal vampires that are made and could have been human, Moroi, or Dhampir in their previous life. They drink blood and only blood, to the point of killing, have a serious aversion to magic, and cannot survive in the sun. Okay, any questions?" Rose sat back down gracefully and straightened herself out, waiting for the questions.

They all sat in silence, absorbing the information for a moment before the woman, Ziva, raised her head and began the questions, "so you said that the Strig- Strigoi?" she looked to Rose for confirmation on the word. Rose nodded and she continued, "Strigoi drink blood and kill. Is that who or what you think we are looking for in this investigation?" Rose looked taken aback for a moment before her mask slid back into place and she nodded. "So, then, how do we kill or protect ourselves against this enemy?"

I jumped in, giving Rose a chance to sit back, "Strigoi can be killed one of three ways, other than direct sunlight: staking, fire, and decapitation. Anything and everything else will stun or knock them down, but will not kill. Also, the staking has to be done with an enchanted silver stake, anything else will, again, stun them but nothing more."

McGee looked up and snorted again, "this sounds a bit like a fantasy novel. You're telling me that vampires are real? Are all the other stories real too? This is crazy! Awesome, but totally crazy!" Rose tilted her head to the side then broke into laughter.

"And here I thought it would take all day to convince you of the truth."

McGee shrugged, "stranger things have happened, I suppose, and who doesn't love a little fiction come to life? Abby will be thrilled to know that vampires are real!"

"Well, do you have any questions about what I said or are you pretty satisfied with my explanations?" No one said anything so she nodded, "well, let's get to the images and we can discuss what we've learned and you can tell us what you know." Rose stood up, grabbed her stakes and holstered them and headed for the door.

* * *

 **A/N: Chapter two done and ready to be read! I know this wasn't super exciting yet, but gotta put some exposition in to get to the good stuff right? Too much, not enough? Let me know!  
Thanks,  
strangemind**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: things will get a little more heated and pick up after this! Thanks for the reviews and reads! I really appreciate them and look forward to hearing from people!**

 **Disclaimer: still don't own the characters, just the plot!**

* * *

I sighed and stretched my stiff muscles. We had been standing behind the NCIS team while they went over their evidence, or in this case, lack of evidence. They had 4 bodies but nothing other than the fact they had died gruesome deaths at night. McGee had left about an hour ago to check on some potential new evidence with Abby, and DiNozzo and Ziva were arguing quietly about something they found on McGee's computer screen. I had tuned them out and looked over to Rose. She looked slightly amused at the argument, but I knew she was feeling tired; both from going over the "evidence" and theories and from being up for almost 36 hours " _oh the joy of switching to human time"_ I thought, dryly. I knew she wouldn't complain and could keep this up for a while longer, but we needed to get some rest if we were going to be any help at all.

Before I could suggest we come back to this on another day, Gibb's phone rang. He listened for a moment then signaled Rose and I to follow, walking briskly towards the elevator. Ziva and DiNozzo followed behind, whispering, "I wonder how she's going to react when she hears about this."

Ziva snickered at DiNozzo's statement, "I'm more curious in how they will react to her… personality?"

Rose turned around once the five of us were on the elevator and opened her mouth to question what the two were talking about when the lights turned off and the elevator stopped. Gibbs looked at us, "I want to make sure that you two understand something. I don't know how much I believe you, that's neither here nor there, but I'm trusting Director Vance. I hope you two don't prove my judgement wrong. Trust is not easily earned with me, but it is easily destroyed. Remember that," he finished his statement and flipped the switch on the panel to turn the elevator back on. I saw Rose bristle at the statement, knowing that she took trust and honesty as well as Gibbs did, but I put my hand on her shoulder, looking at her to keep her attitude in check. I saw Rose turn her attitude inwards, her eyes being the only thing to give away how much Gibb's little speech bothered her.

Ziva looked at me, showing that she had seen Rose's near remark and her subsequent "reel in" with her emotions. I shrugged, "it's easy to keep her calm if you know what to look for. Besides, loyalty to Rose means more than I'm sure even Gibbs can fathom."

The elevator door opened, causing Rose and I to flinch from the sudden and loud blast of music emanating from the lab in front of us. DiNozzo looked at the two of us with a small smile dancing on his lips before heading through, "Abby, turn the music down! You'll scare away our new friends!" I watched as a rather pretty but strangely dressed girl flitted into the frame of the door, a remote in her hand. She clicked it, causing the music to stop before she turned and rushed towards us, pulling Rose into a hug first then me. Rose recovered from her initial shock quickly, returning the hug Abby, albeit with less enthusiasm than Abby and with a confused look etched onto her face. I was completely frozen from the contact, still having a hard time in letting my emotions show, especially to strangers.

"Well, it's great to finally meet you! So, tell me everything! Tim told me that you aren't human, like some of the victims, is that right? How can you tell that those who attacked the vics aren't human too? How does someone not leave evidence? I mean, these people are fantastic with their ability to wipe away evidence! Most times, even the wipes leave their own form of evidence, telling us at least what they used or what else could have happened," she took a deep breath after her tirade, indicating she hadn't taken a breath once during it. Rose's eyebrows shot up from Abby's overzealous questioning before she began to laugh, catching everyone, even Abby, off guard.

She shakily wiped a tear from her eye after her giggles finally subsided and sighed, "I haven't had a laugh that good in a long time. It's nice to meet you too, Abby. Those were not the questions I was expecting when I came down here. Honestly, I'm impressed I haven't been asked more superficial questions, but I'm guessing you guys just sort of deal with whatever comes your way and, if it doesn't interfere with the case, you don't really care. To answer your question, they didn't wipe the evidence. Strigoi don't have to wipe evidence," her eyes flickered towards me quickly. I nodded once, indicating she should continue, hoping no one was watching our exchange. She returned her gaze to Abby, who motioned for the group to follow her into the lab and flitted towards the monitors.

"Before you keep going, I wanted to show you what we called you for," she clicked on the keyboard for a few seconds then clicked the mouse, changing the screen from a plain background to show three different camera angles. She moved her mouse over the bottom one and clicked it, enlarging the image and clicking the "Play" option on the bottom of the screen. We watched as the silent images moved across the screen, showing the marina where the last murder had taken place. I saw a flash of movement towards the bottom of the screen and gasped. The flash of movement turned into a low light. As the light began to grow, more images became apparent as they saw three figures attacking the victim. The video paused as the three faces turned towards the direction of the camera and Abby turned towards us, "I was hoping you could give us some insight? I don't know how much clearer I can make the images, but I might be able to recreate some of the faces well enough that we could get them through the databases? As for the lights, do you know where that came from? We looked, and there are no lights that were working down there, and even if they were, they wouldn't have matched that type."

I looked at Rose then looked at Abby. I cleared my throat, "I don't know about the faces, but that confirms what Rose and I originally thought about more than one assailant. Unfortunately, it's becoming more and more common for Strigoi to attack in groups, however, it's obvious that all three of these Strigoi are very, very young. I would say that the first victim was attacked by a single Strigoi and more came around as the subsequent attacks occurred. As for the lights, that's easy enough: the final victim was a Moroi, and a fire-user. He probably had some training in offensive magic, a rather new concept in our world. From the looks of it, he was aiming at one of the Strigoi, but he missed and probably hit something nearby that was flammable. I would look for scorch marks near the scene to see what it might have been. I don't know if it would help, but it would certainly be a step in the right direction. Also, if the Moroi got lucky, there's a chance he did hit one of them, whether that will help remains to be seen."

Abby's eyes grew wide, "are you freaking kidding?! MAGIC?! Magic is real? What's a Moroi anyway? How can you tell that there are more than one Strigoi in the previous attacks anyway? There's no evidence from any of them, except the injuries the bodies sustained, but Dr. Mallard said that the muscle and skin was so damaged around the neck that it was impossible to get any more information other than they died from blood-loss and, obviously, asphyxiation." Rose sighed and stretched, pulling her hair back into a high ponytail, partially pulling it through the last round, making it look like a folded over bun. She reached back and rubbed her neck over her tattoos, catching Abby's eyes who reached out to ask about the tattoos, "what are those? They look cool! Sorry, I love tattoos and meanings behind them," Abby shrugged at Rose's slight flinch from her being touched over her marks. Before Rose could start, Abby's head turned, showing that she had a few tattoos on her neck and upper back.

Rose scoffed, looking slightly offended by this statement, "my tattoos aren't to be touched. They are important marks that Guardians wear and touching them is rather… invasive. Same with touching a stake of another Guardian unless they give permission or hand one to you." Her hands covered the back of her neck as she glared at Abby.

Abby looked taken aback, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you, I just find them rather interesting. I've never seen something like them and you have so many! Maybe, you could sit down with us and talk more about your world?"

Rose nodded and I placed a hand on her shoulder, squeezing it for a moment then looked at Abby as Rose stepped behind me, "I'm sorry about that, Abby. It's been a long few days. Her and I switched to human time, so we've been up for nearly 2 days. That, plus she's worried about these Strigoi and she hasn't eaten since yesterday. She can get rather… what's the word? Hangry?" I turned to Rose who nodded, a small smile on her lips at my attempt to use American slang.

"Well it's getting late anyway. How about we all go out for dinner and then I can take you to where you'll be staying yes?" Ziva stepped forward, a strangely soft look on her face as she regarded the two of us. Rose nodded as her stomach made itself known for being ignored for so long. She blushed as we all laughed and Abby finished a few things and shrugged off her lab coat and grabbed a black poncho-looking coat. We left her to gather the rest of her things as we went back upstairs to the offices so everyone else could grab their bags and jackets. I watched with amusement as Ziva snagged the keys to the Dodger from DiNozzo's desk when he bent down to grab his bag and gun from the desk.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, we arrived in front of a slightly run down-looking bar and saw Abby get out of a rather old red Ford. McGee had opted to ride with her and DiNozzo had ridden with Gibbs, apparently trying to avoid riding with Ziva. He had seemed rather apprehensive to ride with us once he saw the keys were taken from the desk and snorted, whispering "good luck and wear a seat-belt!" before he followed behind Gibbs to his own car. We walked in and saw Abby and McGee sitting at a table and talking animatedly. As we walked towards the table, I saw Rose tense up and I followed her gaze, feeling my body tense as I saw what was going on. Rose motioned for me to stay with the NCIS team and she claimed to need to use the bathroom, her hand repositioning her purse over her shoulder as she walked towards the restrooms. I turned towards the group and saw that both Ziva and Gibbs were staring at me with a questioning look but a shook my head and motioned for them to sit.

We had just ordered some drinks when we heard someone scream. I tensed and turned towards where Rose had disappeared and saw that the two standing at the table in the corner had moved to follow her, one of them baring a rather nasty burn mark on the side of his face, showing that even a few nights hadn't been able to heal the fire's burn he sustained. I turned back and saw the agents had stood up, drawing out their guns and knew they were about to head into the fight, guns literally blazing. The sound of gunfire from outside drew everyone's attention again and the agents moved outside, leaving McGee to stay at the table with Abby so she wouldn't be alone. I stood and followed the three agents, quickening my pace to get in front of them so they wouldn't get involved with the fight. I froze on the spot as I took in what I was seeing; Rose was pinned against the ground, thrashing wildly to get away from the rather large man who was holding her down, her stake and gun laying feet from her and her second stake still imbedded in the body of the first Strigoi she had taken down.

"I'm going to enjoy killing you, slowly… Dhampir. I will enjoy draining your blood from you while I take what I want from your body," the large Strigoi growled, ripping her shirt in half, placing his pale hands along the curves of her body, "Dhampir women love this anyway, I'm sure you'll be no exception, I can even see you've been someone's bloodwhore before. You have that look in your eyes and I will make sure you feel every second of it… whether you like it... or n-" He didn't finish his statement as a roar of pain escaped from him. Before I had even registered it, I had moved and shoved my stake into his side, trying to get him off her. Rose scrambled to her feet and I moved to take him down, my bloodlust running wild.

Before I could move in for the kill, another gunshot rang out, hitting the Strigoi in the head. I turned to see Rose had gotten her gun and had fired back at the evil creature in front of me, her eyes pleading with me to pull back. I acquiesced, reigning my anger in with great effort and saw Ziva come forward with a pair of handcuffs. Rose grabbed them from her and snapped them on then motioned for me to help. Together, we lifted him up and threw him further into the alley, away from curious eyes, then Rose sat in front of him, waiting for him to wake up.

"You do realize you shot him in the head, right? He's not going to wake up," DiNozzo stared at the man who was now leaning, handcuffed, against the wall in front of them.

I laughed humorlessly and shook my head, "no he'll wake up. He'll be down for a few minutes, but he'll be up soon enough. If you want, go inside, we don't want you to get hurt. But if you want to stay, go to the car and grab Rose's duffle bag, I'm sure she'll want a change of clothes," I looked at her torn and tattered shirt, shrugging my duster off and throwing it over her shoulders. I glanced around and saw her leather jacket had a sleeve ripped off and had been discarded in a dark pool near the first body, soaked in the Strigoi's blood.

Ziva had run back to the car to grab her a new shirt just as the Strigoi was stirring. Gibbs and DiNozzo had moved closer, to help interrogate him while Rose and I held him down and kept our stakes trained on him. His eyes shot open and glared at Rose, then Gibbs, DiNozzo, and, finally, myself, "who would have thought a bloodwhore like yourself would have managed to wrangle in a few humans to do your dirty work? You even managed to convince a Guardian to help? I'm impressed," the man hissed at Rose, his eyes darting between the four of us.

Rose just sighed dramatically and grabbed her stake off the ground, "we can do this the easy way or hard way, you know. Tell me who your boss is and we can end this quick enough," she pressed the stake into his bicep, adding a pinch of pressure, "if you don't want to talk to a 'bloodwhore like myself' then you can talk to Gibbs or DiNozzo, they would love to ask a few questions themselves," the Strigoi hissed at the stake and tried to pull away from it, but only managed to force himself further into my death-grip.


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, sorry about the delay. I'll be starting school back up soon and my updates will be sporatic but I will update when I can, I swear! It'll get a little lemony so if no one wants to read that, it'll be marked! Otherwise, let me know how I'm doing! Too much? Not enough? Tell me!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own the characters at all**

* * *

We only managed to get a few questions answered before he completely shut down, only opening his mouth to spew insults and threats to Rose or myself, completely ignoring the NCIS agents, except to eye Ziva with predatory lust once she returned. Rose knew we wouldn't get much more out of him so she stabbed him with her stake, watching him drop to the ground after he hissed out a 'fuck you' directly to her. I grabbed my phone and walked away, making the necessary calls, informing them that we were involved in a human-led investigation that involved the two now dead Strigoi. The Alchemists told us to clear out, and they would gather all the necessary evidence and send it to the NCIS headquarters before disposing of the bodies and clearing away the debris. I agreed to their terms and hung up the phone, nodding towards the group to head back in.

"Sorry guys but it's been a long two days and I'm ready to practically collapse. I think it's time we head to wherever we are staying," Rose sighed as we walked back into the bar, "speaking of, where are we staying while we figure out what's going on?"

"Originally, you were going to stay at a hotel, but given what we've seen tonight, you'll be staying at my house for the remainder of your time during the investigation," Gibbs threw a few bills on the table to cover the drinks we all ordered, but were unable to consume. We followed behind him while the other agents and Abby said their goodbyes to each other and entered their cars.

* * *

Rose practically ran to the shower that Gibbs had pointed out once we had arrived at his house. I was busy unpacking our bags in the room we were to stay in when I heard Gibbs climb the stairs and enter the room at the very end of the hall. I sighed and leaned back against the wall, waiting my turn for the shower, running back through what the Strigoi had said to us as we interrogated him:

" _You think you're so high and mighty, but you are nothing… He will come for you and I know your time with him will be… painful and slow," the Strigoi spat at me then turned to Rose, "although, I'm sure he might let some of his other… underlings play with the bloodwhore first," the way he said it made my blood run cold._

 _Gibbs just stared at us while Ziva looked disgusted at the words the Strigoi was spouting. Rose snorted and bent over, raking her stake across his face rather slowly, "you know, I'm getting rather tired of hearing the same threats spew from your kind's mouths. Seriously, I'm convinced that you all go to some 'learn to be evil boarding school' or something because I hear the same shit it's not even funny anymore. Heard it in Russia, heard it in the States, and I'm hearing it now," I stared at Rose, unable to process beyond what she was saying. I felt a shiver run down my spine, forcing myself not to think about the time I saw this side of Rose and it had been directed at me._

"Comrade? Hey, are you with me?" her voice snapped me out of my reverie. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her to me, desperate to feel her against my body, trying to hold my mind from wandering down the darkness that threatened to claim me.

She leaned into me and stretched up, kissing me desperately, almost like she needed the contact as badly as I did. I groaned against her softly and pulled her into the bedroom, getting ready to lock the door and have my way with her, but she pushed against me, making us break the kiss, "oh no you don't. I love you and want to enjoy this, but you are stinky and I will not be getting sexy with a stinky man!" She giggled and shoved me towards the door with a towel draped over my hands. The heated look in her eyes told me to make this quick and as I turned towards the bathroom, I saw a look of understanding also flash in her eyes: she knew where my thoughts were and that there was a good chance my nightmares would return tonight. She was trying to give me a moment to compose myself then she would make this night as good as she could.

A few moments later, I stepped out of the shower and dried myself off quickly, wrapping the towel around my waist seeing as I had forgotten to also grab a sleep shirt and boxers. I practically ran back into the room, not wanting to be caught by our gracious host, even though his door was closed and dark, indicating he might already be asleep. I quickly closed the door and locked it, leaning my forehead against the door and sighed deeply, letting the rest of my nightmares fade into the back of my mind. As soon as I did this, I felt Rose step up behind me and wrap her arms tightly around my waist, leaning into my back and kissing my molnija and promise mark, causing my head to fall forward even more.

"Come here, let me take control for once," I shivered as she whispered in my ear, nipping it lightly before she pulled away, grabbing my hand and pulling me with her. I groaned as I thought about her taking control and I plopped on the bed, eager to see what she had in store for me. She crawled onto the bed behind me and started massaging my scalp and shoulders, letting the stress of the night practically roll off my body. I sighed and leaned into her touch, falling against her chest as her arms made their way around to my chest, her short nails gliding along it.

 **(M scene start)**

She leaned down and kissed my ear and neck, biting them gently as she dragged her nails across my pecs and over my nipples, causing a hiss to escape my lips. I continued to fall back as she slid out from behind me and moved over to straddle my hips, "this is for earlier on the plane. I thought we could finish what we started, yes?" I nodded eagerly and placed my hands behind my head, watching as she slowly drew her nails down over the front of my body, skimming over where the towel was still wrapped. Her mouth quickly followed with kisses and nips along my chest, abs, and navel as her hands slid up my legs, towards my rapidly hardening member. She pulled the towel away as I lifted my hips up and she slowly slid down, settling in between my legs, finishing her kisses right on the top of my cock. She kissed it once then slid her tongue down it, then back up before sliding her wet, hot mouth over it, causing my hips to buck up. I groaned, my eyes rolling back as she slid her mouth slowly up and down my cock, sinking her mouth as far as she could then pull back all the way to the tip, swirling her tongue around the head once, twice, three times before repeating the motions, getting faster. I moaned as her hands joined in, stroking what couldn't fit in her mouth. My hands snaked into her hair, unable to stop myself as she continued, her movements varying between slow and fast, the amount of pressure changing as she found a rhythm to drive me beyond my self-control. I growled softly, trying to remember that we still had to keep somewhat quiet, practically forcing her head back down my shaft as I felt myself get closer and closer.

She moaned softly against me as her teeth grazed up and down the underside, causing me to shudder, "I'm gonna cum, Roza…" I growled out, giving her the option to pull away if she wanted to. She looked at me with love and amusement as she quickly bobbed her head up and down, racing me to the finish line. I gripped her hair almost painfully tight as I felt my body release into her mouth, jerking slightly up into her throat. She swallowed everything I had to offer and slowly came off with a sound "pop" as if finishing off her own personal popsicle. She licked her lips carefully then crawled up my half-spent body and kissed me as I came down from my orgasmic high. I smiled and kissed her, pulling her to me tightly, feeling the need to almost cling to her.

 **(M scene end)**

After a moment, I realized how turned on she probably felt and began to stroke down her body, wanting to give her the same release I just had, but she stopped my hand and laced our fingers together, "no, not tonight Comrade. Tonight, was about you. I know that what the Strigoi said is bothering you and I know you're thinking of your past," I was about to interject, but she silenced me with a peck, "no it's okay, really. I know you've forgiven yourself, but it's hard to forget. The nightmares still haunt you just as mine do and that's okay too. We will get through this together, but for now," she reached down and pulled the blankets over both of us, letting me wrap an arm tightly around her as she snuggled close to my chest, her head resting just at the crook of my neck and she yawned, "for not let's sleep. I promise I'm not going anywhere."

* * *

I woke with a start a few hours later, cold sweat forming on my forehead as I tried to shake away another nightmare. Only, this time, it wasn't about my days as a Strigoi. It was a nightmare of seeing Roza shot, falling to the ground only we were too late. I could see Tasha's face, turned into an ugly smile as she fired at Roza, " _you should have chosen me! We could have been happy and she would be alive now if it wasn't for you!_ " I could hear the words and the gun shot ringing in my ears as I sat there, trying to calm my racing heart. My hand drifted over Rose's sleeping form, trying to reassure myself that she was still alive and well, but I couldn't shake the sounds. I almost spoke up when I heard the sound again, but I realized it wasn't a gun shot, it was the sound of incessant knocking.

"Come on you two, time to get up, we've got another body!" I heard Gibbs call through the door. I turned to get out of the bed and start getting dressed as Roza sat bolt upright, practically glaring daggers at the now quiet door. She grumbled a few curse words under her breath in, to my resigned horror, Turkish as she stretched and grabbed a long-sleeved shirt, a pair of jeans, and low-heeled boots. I threw on a pair of cargo pants, a shirt, and my duster then grabbed her and my stakes from where they sat on the dresser. She threw on her second leather jacket, practically threatening death to whoever ruined her back up leather jacket and snatched her stakes.

"Someone gets grumpy when they don't get their pleasure in, huh?" I whispered to Rose as she walked through the door, pulling her hair into a messy bun at the base of her neck.

She spun around and glared at me, "no I'm pissed because I'm awake I'm awake and being woken up after a few hours always puts me in such a STELLAR mood…!" She grumbled as we walked down the stairs. I chuckled and followed behind her watching with half hidden amusement as she glared at Gibbs who was waiting impatiently at his car.

"Some time this year would be fantastic, you two!" He called and slid into the driver's seat and starting the engine. Rose mumbled a few choicer words as she slinked into the back of the car and I sat next to Gibbs, quickly checking the car as he shoved it into gear and sped off.

FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!

We arrived on scene just as DiNozzo was snapping picture after picture on a high flash camera, probably to catch anything and everything around the body as well as the body itself.

"Ahh McProbbie! Why don't you go and bag all the information our John Doe is carrying while I finish these pictures?" DiNozzo snarked at McGee while snapping a picture of him as he squatted down next to the body, feeling for a wallet or form of identification.

"Tony, stop! That flash is practically blinding you know!"

"Well… stop looking at it then!"

Rose looked like she was about to retort, signaling our arrival when she stopped short, "oh shit. Is there a second body or is this it?" Rose motioned towards the young man sprawled out.

Ziva joined the group after having gathered what appeared to be statements and shrugged, "that's the only body that we were notified of, why? Should there be a second body by chance? Do you come to expect such a thing?"

I clued in on what she was saying, "not necessarily. I think it's more to the fact that her and I recognize the body and are… surprised that there's only one."

Rose sighed, "actually, I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't. He is such a moron that he probably ran smack into the attacker or attackers."

"OK, I am confused, what are you two talking about?" Ziva tilted her head to the side as Rose and I stared at the body.

Rose looked up, her guardian mask slipping into place, showing nothing more than mild disinterest, "I'm saying that this body belongs to a colleague of mine and was in my year when we graduated. He was assigned to guard Jesse Zeklos at our Promise Ceremony. That means he managed to give Jesse enough time to run, Jesse was captured, or he was turned. Knowing Zeklos, he was more than likely captured or turned. I doubt he would have had the sense to actually run, probably froze on the spot or managed to stumble into the attacker or attackers."

DiNozzo and McGee both stopped and stared at Rose, "so, you can identify the body then?" Gibbs asked, efficient as ever.

Rose nodded, "name, Jason Martin. Age, nineteen. Occupation, guardian and assigned to Mr. Jesse Zeklos. Current location, Court as per last known permanent residence of current charge. Kills, none. Marks, none. Next of family, none. We might want to inform Guardian Hans in case his friends want to hold a memorial or something since we can't send his body until we've finished up here."

Everyone but myself stopped and stared, trying to understand how someone her age could easily prattle that off as if it was nothing, but as a guardian that's what we did, dealt with death quickly and efficiently then dealt with our emotions when no one else was around to see them. Just as Ziva looked like she was about to speak, an older gentleman arrived followed by a rather springy young man.

"Ah, Jethro, is this our newest addition to the case then? Surprising, seeing as he appears to be a civilian, but I guess that was bound to happen eventually. Mr. Palmer, if you wouldn't mind bringing that bag over here?" The older man motioned to his younger assistant, Mr. Palmer as he was named, who rushed over to the man's side.

"Looks like this might be the breakthrough we were waiting for!" McGee had resumed his searching and pulled out a rather bloody piece of stationary and carefully unfolded it. Rose gasped as she took in the paper and I realized why.

The paper was from the _Sunshine Motel_ and the words written on it, in nearly perfect letters was: _You're next, Rosemarie. I'm coming for you both._


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Alright my lovelies! Thanks for the reviews and follows! They warm my heart and keep me going! This chapter's a bit of a filler, but I promise the action is coming soon! I will update when I can, but with school starting, it might be more and more spread out!**

* * *

The next morning, we arrived with Gibbs to the NCIS headquarters after he had stopped off to get coffee. I grabbed a cup myself and Rose ordered herself a hot chocolate…

 _She had been rather quiet last night after we had finished at the crime scene and headed back to Gibb's house an hour or so later. Her and I quietly got back into our pajamas and climbed back into the bed. I had wrapped my arms around her and pulled her close, coaxing her to fall asleep for a little while longer. She managed to fall back asleep after a bit, her breathing slowing and deepening. I matched my breathing with hers and drifted off for a few more hours._

I shook myself out of my thoughts as we approached the building. Gibbs walked us through the metal detectors and we got our visitor's badges again then followed him into the elevator. He had also stopped to get something called a "Caf-POW" drink and then hit the button for Abby's lab. We were once again greeted by very loud music and a rather bubbly Abby as we exited.

"Gibbs! It's about time!" She exclaimed as she reached for the drink in Gibbs' hand. He pulled it back and raised an eyebrow, waiting for her to continue. She sighed dramatically and dragged us, almost literally, into her lab as she turned down the music, "so, we actually got lucky this time! The security cameras were working and it seems that the attackers were unaware that the cameras were up and running," Abby gestured towards the screen then began typing with gusto on her keyboard. We stared at the video as it played, recognizing a rather inebriated man staggering down the marina, followed by a straight-backed man that I recognized as our newest victim. We watched the man in front stagger to a halt as Jason grabbed onto the man's shoulder and pulled him back, drawing something out of his pocket that I recognized as a stake.

"There's no way that Jesse could have run, if he was THAT drunk," Rose commented as three figures appeared in front of Jason and Jesse, stalking towards the two. We watched as Jason engaged two of the three, while the third hung back slightly, leaning against the wall of the building they were next to. Jason made quick work of one of his attackers, but the other managed to get ahold of him and slam him hard into the ground repeatedly before sinking his fangs into his neck.

I heard Rose sigh as she lightly brushed her hand against mine. We had agreed to keep some level of professionalism when we were here, but I must have looked as horrified and disgusted as I felt, even with my mask on, for her to break that agreement even slightly. I steeled myself and forced my emotions down as the screen flickered to Jesse, who stood there, completely frozen, watching the scene in front of him. The third attacker motioned towards Jason and the Strigoi stopped what he was doing and dropped him unceremoniously before they both turned their attention to Jesse. I saw Jason stir slightly, signaling he was alive and conscious, barely by the looks of it, before Jesse strode forward and knelt next to the body. I felt myself tense up as I watched, not knowing what was being said, I could only assume that Jesse had been given an ultimatum: feed or die. I felt Rose tense beside me and heard Abby gasp, signaling she hadn't watched the whole thing through, as we watched Jesse drain Jason dry. The Strigoi that had originally bitten Jason grabbed Jesse and threw him over his shoulder as the latter passed out and the transformation began.

The last of the three attackers stayed staring at the body then fished out something from his jacket and knelt down, placing it in Jason's coat. I assumed it was the paper that we had found at the scene. He then looked directly at the camera and smiled broadly. Abby paused the video feed and zoomed in on his face, using her keyboard to try to clear up the image as best she could before running it through, what she called, facial recognition software, "I don't know how long this will take, if we will find him at all, but this might be a chance to get somewh-"she was cut off when her computer binged a match, "Lieutenant Micah Delgado. According to this, he was last seen in Iraq with his unit: they oversaw guarding and guiding a humanitarian group who were bringing food, medicine, and supplies to some of the villages near by their station. He supposedly disappeared after an attack on one of the roads between villages. He stayed behind to let his unit and the civilians escape but they never found a body and was assumed MIA then later killed when his dog tags and a threatening letter came in postage to his superior a few days later. I guess he was 'killed'…?" Abby read the dossier that came up with Micah's image, putting air quotes around the word "killed" as she finished her observations questioningly.

"Can we get any finger prints off the vic and find out who the other attacker was?" Gibbs looked at Abby sideways and waited. Abby nodded and motioned to a few jars as well as what looked like a piece of tape or something that was scanning through another program to find a finger print match.

"Ducky also managed to get some DNA off the vic and I'm running them through as well. I also have the weapon and am trying to see if the first attacker's DNA is on there, since there was no evidence of a body."

Rose snorted and gestured to the screen, "I bet if you kept playing that, you'd find the body was thrown into the water or set on fire. Since I didn't see any scorch marks, I'm guessing the former. That or the body was thrown in the dumpster and wouldn't be found ever again once the sun had its way with it," Abby frowned but continued the video feed to find that she was right. After Micah had finished smiling at the camera, he grabbed the body of the first attacker and threw him into the water without a second thought. Rose sighed and brushed her hand against mine again before raising it above her head and stretching, "as fun as watching this was, I think that answers what happened to Jesse and I need to make a call to Her Majesty. Hey, do you have a secure line or video call center or something I can use to call this in?" Rose turned to Gibbs who nodded.

Gibbs turned away from us and handed Abby the large drink he had in his hand and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "good work, Abbs."

She smiled and drew a large gulp from the drink via a straw and motioned for us to follow Gibbs as he made his way to the elevator once again.

He turned towards me and tilted his head to the side slightly, "you okay? I normally don't ask this of our agents, but since you both clearly know who at least one or two of these people are, I'd say you're skirting very close to rule 10."

I stared at him, "rule 10?"

Gibbs glared hard at me as the door opened, "Never get personally involved in a case."

Rose and I just stared after him, frozen on the spot, "I've never heard of that rule before!" Rose practically growled.

DiNozzo looked up and snorted, "Ahh, learning the infamous Gibbs rules, are we? He must either really like you or really trust you if he's sharing his rules with you. So, which did you learn today? My personal favorite is rule 14 since it almost always applies to us: Bend the line, don't break it."

Ziva raised an eyebrow as we walked passed their desks to follow Gibbs up the stairs, "I thought your favorite would be rule 9!"

McGee sighed and slammed his phone down, "no, Ziva, that's your favorite. Either that or rule 16," he sighed and leaned back in his chair, obviously frustrated with what or who was on the other end of the phone.

Gibbs motioned for the three of them to follow us into a room labeled MTAC when Rose spun, "what are with all these rules? I've never heard of them!"

DiNozzo just broke into a snarky smile, "as I said, they're Gibbs' rules. He made them up and they are rules to follow in life and on the job. For instance, rule 9: Never go anywhere without a knife. And rule 16: if someone has the upper hand, break it! There are what, around 70 or so now? There were 50, but we add as we go. It's sort of a code of ethics we all choose to live by, especially when you have Gibbs as a boss!" DiNozzo whispered to Rose and I. He looked like was about to continue when a hand slapped him on the back of the head and the six of was walked into a room that looked like a small, secure home movie center.

Gibbs waved a hand towards the computer on the side, "go enter in the information to connect the call. This is as secure as it gets around here," he sat back into one of the seats as McGee strolled over to the computer and put a headset on, ready to type in the call information. Rose went over to instruct McGee on the call information and second later the large screen in front lit up with a dial tone for a few seconds.

"Hello? Queen Dragomir's office!" A rather disheveled looking blonde woman said, answering the call on the computer.

"Well, look who's slacking off! If it isn't Miss Mia Rinaldi?!" Rose piped up from the side of the room as she strode back over to stand in front of the screen.

"That's because I finally can catch a break without your hair brained schemes keeping the rest of us hard working folks up! Good to see you, Rose. Hang on, Lissa just stepped out of the room but she'll be right back. She told me to watch the phone or computer in case a call came in from you or the Council. Ah, here she is!" I watched as Mia looked away from the screen and stepped back, "good to see you, Rose, you too, Dimitri!" She waved and walked away from the screen.

McGee and DiNozzo looked like they were arguing quietly and I was about to ask what they were talking about when two rather regal looking images appeared on the screen. Our two charges appeared, both looking slightly happy, but both looked just as tired and stressed, if not more so since we were last there.

"Rose! Dimitri! It's so good to hear from you two! Any new developments? I know it's only been a day or so, but did you guys have any luck?" Lissa chimed in, sliding gracefully into a chair in front of the screen while Christian pulled another chair up and plopped down in it.

Rose raised her eyebrows and smiled sadly, "yeah we do, but are you OK, Liss? You look exhausted! You were supposed to take last night off, remember?" Rose snorted when she saw Lissa blush slightly before she shook it off and continued, "never mind that. We had another victim pop up last night. Guardian Martin was the victim," Lissa and Christian both took a sharp breath in but Rose continued, "the forensic scientist here found some security footage and we saw that Mr. Zeklos was, presumed, forcibly turned by drinking Guardian Martin dry."

My eyes flickered to my charge's face on the screen. He appeared to ignore the statement, but I saw the flash of hurt in his eyes, as I'm sure Rose did as well. We all knew that Christian stilled suffered from losing his parents and the stigma still followed him that they had turned, willingly. He shrugged it off quick enough, however, and I turned my attention back to Lissa.

"… Access to the Alchemists information hub," I raised an eyebrow, clearly having missed something vital, a rarity for me, but probably more because I had focused on Christian for longer than I thought, still worried about him with all that had happened in his life. I turned to look at Rose, but she shook her head slightly, indicating she would tell me what I missed later before returning her attention to the screen.

"Thank you, Your Majesty, I look forward to getting that later. I do hope, despite this, you manage to take a _break_ for the weekend and try to find some time to give our friends a call," Rose emphasized the word break heavily, making me wonder whether she meant a break from all the politics or a break from using her magic, but I shook it off, figuring that either or both would go a long way from Lissa. With a few parting words, the call was ended and Rose turned to face the group who probably had dozens of questions.

* * *

"That was interesting, to say the most!" Ziva exclaimed after we had all convened back at their desks. Rose had pulled up a few extra chairs and stuck them on the end, near Ziva's desk so we could sit and answer their numerous questions.

"I think you mean, 'to say the very least', Ziva," McGee sighed with exasperation, "but I guess the biggest question is: what did she mean by 'Alchemists' information hub?" He turned towards Rose and I, but I shook my head, indicating that Rose had more "clearance" than I did, especially with matters concerning the Alchemists.

"The Alchemists are a group of humans who, for lack of a better word, grow up hating all our kind. Anyone who contains even a drop of vampire blood are considered spawn of the damned in their eyes. Anyway, because of this, they have an agreement with our world to keep us hidden from the general human populace. The Alchemists are literally everywhere, and have contacts in every location known, and unknown, to man that could have influence or could potentially find out about our world. That's how we were notified about this whole situation before we had even been called and how Director Vance knew how to get into contact with Her Majesty. I wouldn't be surprised if there was at least one person here who either was an Alchemist or worked for them. Besides all that, however, they are very apt at keeping records on everything and anything. In fact, if Abby cannot find any information on the other two attackers, I would bet anything that the Alchemists will have them in their system. For the most part, they are extremely private about what they keep, information wise, and do not share anything unless it comes from the high ups. Even then, they don't share information, but since this is involving humans and, potentially, exposing our world to the human world-whether on a large or small scale- they might be willing to give us access to their databases, just so we can find who we are dealing with and our best course of action," Rose looked at McGee while she finished her comments, but her gaze flitted over the others in the group as she talked.

So, you're saying that there are spies in the American government for your kind?" Ziva asked, her eyebrow shooting up with almost an arrogant nature.

"I'm saying that there are spies in every branch of government for our kind and some branches you probably don't know about, because that's how it works in our world. Governments love to keep secrets, right? Well, there's the biggest secret in this world and it's been in hiding for centuries!"

Ziva's eyes widened at Rose's exclamation but she didn't react otherwise. I could tell Rose was getting a bit antsy, in fact, so was I, "you said there was a gym here. Do you also have a place for sparring?" I turned towards DiNozzo, who nodded, "excellent. I think we still need to keep up our training, and this might help us work out some thoughts, yes?" I looked sideways at Rose who nodded and stood up with a huff, grabbing her duffle bag that she had brought earlier, in case we got stuck out late again. I turned towards Gibbs, "would it be alright if we work out for a few hours? It might help clear our heads and we can look at this fresh. Besides, we won't be able to get access into the Alchemists' information without an access code and we will have to wait awhile for that."

McGee looked between them and snorted, "this should be fun to watch! I'll take them down, if that's OK, boss?" Gibbs sighed and waved them off, "DiNozzo, Ziva, go with them. We won't get much more done right now anyway. I'll call you if I need you back up here," he looked up to see Director Vance and made his way towards the stairs again, dismissing us.

We headed towards the elevator and I heard DiNozzo whisper to McGee, "ten bucks on the Russian…"

As the doors closed I heard McGee snicker before grabbing DiNozzo's hand, "deal."

* * *

 **Ooh, Jesse's a Strigoi now, yay! Poor Dimitri, it must be hard to watch those bad guys get away with it...**

 **So, what do we think? Good? Bad? Ugly?! (ha!) well, enjoy the read and I will see you next time!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: So... here's the next chapter! What do you guys think? What do you think is gonna happen? Do we like it? Let me know! R & R! I always appreciate it guys!**

 **Disclaimer: I still own... none of the characters, just the plot!**

* * *

I saw a smirk cross Rose's face as she heard the two men bet on the outcome of our fight and her hand snaked out to grab my arm as we exited, telling me to hold back slightly. We exited the elevator together as Ziva pointed out the locker rooms for us to change in then walked towards the female locker room, evidently going to change, maybe to work out herself?

"Hey, Comrade. How about we have a little wager between us as well? If the boys are going to bet on our little spar, I want to bet that I'll win… and if I do… then you'll have to face a punishment of my choice," she whispered into my ear, pulling me down to her height as Gibbs and the others walked into the gym. I could practically hear her purr out the last words, feeling my body automatically respond to her words.

"If I win then, Roza… I will say that the same goes for you. You'll have to submit to my wishes, without question," I growled back, pulling her close for a quick yet heated kiss. I felt her victorious smirk as she pulled away to change. I watched her walk away, mesmerized by her swaying hips, noting she moved them more than normal just to get a rise out of me: which of course was working perfectly to her advantage. I groaned to myself then headed to the men's locker room.

"I'm telling you, Probie, the Russian's gonna wipe the floor with her!"

"Why does he want to wipe the floor using a person? Wouldn't a mop be much more efficient?" Ziva inquired as her and Rose came out of the locker room. I had changed quicker than either of the girls, only needing to change pants since I had worn a work-out tank under my uniform and had to put my hair back. I saw that Rose had pulled her hair back into a tight bun and had slipped into a pair of yoga pants and a sports bra.

I sighed internally as I lifted myself from the wall I had been leaning against, _of course she wouldn't play fair,_ I thought to myself as I went through my stretches, watching her do the same from the corner of my eye.

"So, Comrade, shall we dance?" I snorted at the comment but felt myself slip into my usual fighting mode and watched Roza turn into the lethal killing machine I knew she was: gone was my soft and loving woman, and in her place, was a fierce and fiery warrior, ready to take down the world if necessary.

I heard the others move away from the sparring mats and even heard Abby's high-pitched voice join the group in greeting. I realized I had let it distract me almost a second too late as I felt Rose contact my side, just barely having turned to keep her away from my stomach. I pulled back into myself and turned my full attention to the blazing woman before me, chastising myself for letting my guard down for a second around her. I saw the knowing glint in her eye as she realized I had been distracted and her plan was falling into place behind those brown eyes I loved so much. We began to circle around, watching each other for any moves. I was slightly taken aback that she had not automatically followed up her first attack with a second, it showed her restraint and that she had only meant the first to test me, not to knock me down-although, had it been anyone else, there's a chance they would have ended on their back after that power attack.

I saw her shift slightly and took it to my advantage. I kicked out, using the shift on her less dominate leg to pull her off balance. Her footing slipped as I kicked the side of her lower leg, but she followed with it, using the momentum to swing her body into a round-house kick aimed right for my unprotected shoulder. I dodged her attack and pulled her leg with me, throwing her back over me and following. She rolled as soon as she hit, rolling out of my range and was back on her feet, shifting her weight back to her less dominate leg. I was surprised that she was keeping her weight there, when I realized, too late, why. She was keeping me guessing by using her less used leg, letting her keep her moves fluid so as not to show any gives. I felt the pain of my mistake as she kicked me hard in my stomach, full force and followed it up with a second kick to my sternum. She used the momentum and jumped back, landing gracefully as I fell to the ground, suddenly winded. I stood up quick enough and charged at her, using her own backward movements against her by swiping for her leg again. Since she was so small, she fell back quickly and I moved to pin her down. I felt her shift as soon as I landed on her and she flipped us over. I used my forearm against her upper chest, forcing her back from me and drew my arm in, hitting her with my elbow right on her chin.

Her head flew back and she stood up, to get away from my reach. She dropped back down, eyeing me warily as I stood again to attack. I was planning on using her own usual moves against her since she rarely fought someone smaller than her, but before I could, she aimed for my leg and I moved to block, realizing that it was a feint as soon as her other leg followed and hit me hard on my ribs. I grunted at the force, and tried to get back into position but it was too late: she moved in for the "kill". She used her speed and my own size against me by moving close to me, making it almost impossible for my longer limbs to keep up. I met her blows as best as I could, but she was just too fast for me. Her final blow came right into my solar plexus and I doubled over. She rolled us over and locked me down as her hand thrust over my chest where my heart lay.

"Dead," she whispered huskily near my ear. We both were breathing hard, at first from our exertion but it suddenly changed as her lips found mine. I kissed her back hungrily but she pulled away before it could be more and she pulled me up from the floor, practically undressing me with her gaze. I forced myself to look towards our audience in time to see DiNozzo hand over some money to McGee who was grinning like he won the lottery.

"That was quite the fight to witness. I'm impressed. I recognized a few moves in there, but some were foreign," Ziva was walking towards us with delight etched into her features. She was more of a fighter than the others and it was evident in her interest in learning more fighting styles.

Rose smiled at her and rolled her shoulder where I had wrenched it back to throw her, "well, we learn mixed martial arts. Dimitri and I had been exploring the Krav Maga fighting style recently. My father's Head Guardian teaches it to a lot of others if they are interested. But we train in general martial arts until we start to find styles that work for us individually. I'm smaller than most of my classmates and opponents so, I focused on speed and stamina above strength or endurance. I am rarely going to find someone weaker than me, especially a Strigoi!"

I winced slightly, thinking about her words, knowing I had exploited her speed when I had been Turned, but I shrugged it off, pretending that I was wincing through the pain, which I was too. I took in a deep breath and turned towards Rose who was looking at Ziva, but her attention was on me, focusing on my internal exchange. I, for some reason, still struggled with fighting against her. I could spar with any other Guardian, but there were times after I sparred with her where I couldn't look at her or felt my own demons rearing their ugly heads. I forced myself to look at her with a raised eyebrow, letting amusement show on my face, "since when did you get so good at knocking a decorated Guardian on their back, Hathaway?"

She laughed at that and gave me a flirtatious look, "I had a _great_ teacher," she turned back towards Abby with a flip of her hair, seeming interested in Abby's excited praise, but I saw her shift. She was worried about me and I knew we would need a private moment and soon. I turned towards McGee as he and DiNozzo approached, the latter pulling his phone out as it rang. He sighed as he turned the sound off and put the phone away.

"Trouble in paradise Tony?" Ziva asked as she approached the group. She turned towards Abby before DiNozzo could respond: "no," and tilted her head to the side, "do you have something for us, Abby, or did you just come to watch the fight?"

Abby smiled and nodded her head, "I got a match on the writing and a message from Director Vance with an access code?"

Rose nodded and I turned towards the locker room, needing some space to put myself back together. I walked quickly away and undressed quickly. I went to shower and used the scalding hot water to relax and return myself back to normal. I, for some reason, felt very bothered by the fight: whether it was the whole situation or the nightmare or it all just building up, I was unsure, but I had to get it together. We had a dangerous Strigoi to catch, and it was clear that Rose was going to be a target, whether today or days from now, we had someone specifically targeting her and knew about the connection to the Sunshine Motel. My eyes snapped open as I felt my blood run cold. _No, it couldn't be… Stupid, stupid, Dimitri! How could you be so stupid!_ I slammed my fist into the wall of the shower stall and turned off the water. I quickly got dried off and dressed, hoping that it wasn't who I thought it was.

I walked out and saw Gibbs standing by the elevator, "the others have already headed off. Rose is waiting for us in Abby's lab, but she asked that I come get you."

I nodded and slung my bag over my shoulder, feeling my mask fall into place to hide my mixed emotions. He hit the elevator's button and a few seconds later we stepped inside. He hit the power button and stared at the door. The silence was deafening and I felt Gibbs' presence nearly overpowering me, despite his age and height compared to myself.

"Guilt is great at eating you away, isn't it? It's something you struggle with, but no matter how hard you try, you can never change the past or bring back what you lost, can you?" Gibbs was casting a sidelong look at me and I felt myself stiffen against his words: Did he know? About what I did? About who I was… what I was? I was saved delving further into that frightening thought as he continued, "you don't have to tell me anything. I just know what a broken man looks like. You struggle to keep putting one foot in front of the other every day, to force some form of normalcy just because you hope that one day you'll feel it for real. You resort to shutting people out, but there's always someone too stubborn to let you. That and you're too damn stubborn to let something like your past affect your future."

I look at him carefully before responding, "you seem to know a lot, despite not knowing me personally, Gibbs."

He smirked at me and turned the power back on and stepped out of the elevator as soon as the doors opened without even acknowledging what I said.

"Gibbs! I was wondering where you were! Rose was showing me how to get the access code to work and we were waiting for you two to get here!" Abby bounded over to us, giving Gibbs, a quick hug then giving me one. I couldn't even react before she had just as quickly pulled away and walked back over to the computers, "so, I got some DNA off the Guardian's stake AND the note that Tim had found on him. I am running it through the Alchemists' databases now!" Abby was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet.

I saw Rose shoot me a concerned look but I shook my head, indicating we would talk later. She nodded but eyed me warily, as if almost waiting for me to lose it. I snorted at that thought, I was coming more out of my shell, but I was nowhere near as impulsive as my little firecracker, even on her best days. I was about to reprimand her for the look when Abby's computer sounded to life, indicating a match.

"OK, so, looks like the DNA found a match on the blood. We have the first Strigoi by the name of Sarah Goldman. Was a Moroi that went missing in an attack 5 years ago. Was presumed turned when there was no body found," she looked taken aback, "do you guys always 'presume turned' if you don't find a body? Don't you go looking or investigate what happened? Never mind. Clearly, she's now dead. Anyway, the DNA found on the vic also came up with a match from the bite mark on his neck. Obviously, we found Jesse Zeklos's saliva since he was one of the biters, but we also got a hit on the second attacker! I wonder what alerted them to leave evidence behind this time? Anyhow, the second attacker was one Nikolai Ivanov: was attacked while travelling to visit family in St. Petersburg, never found and presumed turned. Evidently, he was. Oh, and we found a finger print on that note! That is from… one… Robert Doru!" Rose gasped at the name and I felt myself tense in response, "I'm guessing you know the name?" Abby turned to Rose who nodded, staring at the three images on the screen, her eyes wide.

* * *

We had decided to attempt to go out to dinner again, after the fiasco of last night. Rose had pulled her hair back again into a French Twist and seemed more relaxed. I felt myself growing more and more tense as we got to the restaurant, wondering if we were going to answer any of their lingering questions. We just stepped out of the car when Rose grabbed me by the arm and pulled me close to her and kissed me fiercely. I groaned against her mouth and instantly returned her kiss with fervor, pinning her to the car. She pulled away slightly and stared up at me, her deep brown eyes burning into my very soul, "hey… Don't let this get to you. We will handle this together," she shook me slightly as I felt myself pull away from her, "don't. Don't shut me out, Comrade. Tell me about the nightmare. I know you had one and I saw you close yourself off after our fight, so tell me."

I closed my eyes and leaning my head against her shoulder I drew in a shaky breath, willing myself to calm down, "it was Tasha, Roza. I dreamt of her shooting you… She blames me, just like everyone else… She blames me I just know it. If…" I gripped her tightly, feeling myself slip as I admitted my fears, "if I had just given her what she wanted… None of this would have happened. You would NEVER have been hurt by me, because of me. Never have been on the run, all because I couldn't return what she wanted." I had no idea where these thoughts were coming from, but I couldn't stop them. I suddenly felt like a small child who was spooked by the monster under their bed: creating irrational fears out of something ridiculous, but here I was, reliving the past and wondering if none of that had happened, how much pain people would have been saved from me, how many lives.

I felt myself begin to spiral into my fears and anxiety but Rose's grip on my biceps kept me grounded in the present, "Dimitri, listen to me. You're not there. What happened, happened and it's the past. I, for one, don't regret it, ANY of it. I'm sorry you had to suffer, a lot and that you still do. But, even if we could go back, I wouldn't change any of it because, in the end, I got to keep you and I got to be with Lissa and Eddie. Jill, Adrian, Sydney? Even Christian. The only thing I would change? Would be to smack some sense into you sooner after you came back!"

I laughed and nodded, giving her another kiss, "I would too, Roza. I would run to you the instant Lissa turned me back."

She nodded and slipped her hand in mine and pulled us towards the restaurant where Ziva and Abby had been waiting for us, watching with amused looks on their faces. DiNozzo had just arrived with a grimace on his face as his passenger door opened and Ziva's grin widened. I raised an eyebrow to her as she walked forward, "Sr! How wonderful to see you again!" She gave an older man a kiss on the cheek who was smiling back at her.

"Ahh, Ziva. What a delight to run into you, and Abby! How lovely you look tonight!" The older man gave Abby a kiss on the cheek and DiNozzo sighed.

"Dad, really? I invited you out with us, but can you please behave?"

"Junior, I am behaving! These two lovely ladies deserve some compliments, and you clearly are not the one to give them!" The older man laughed and walked into the restaurant, leaving DiNozzo standing there with an annoyed look on his face.

We entered the restaurant to see Gibbs sitting at a table with Dr. Mallard, Jimmy, McGee, and another woman sitting around the table. We walked up to the table and McGee stood up and gestured to the woman sitting next to him, "Dimitri, Rose, this is my girlfriend, Delilah. Delilah, these are the experts helping us with our most recent case."

The woman smiled and reached her hand up to us in turn before turning her attention to Rose and smiled, "so, you're the big bad girl who can take down men twice your size? It's nice to meet another badass who can take these egotistical men down a peg."

Rose snorted and shrugged, "well, you know, when you're born this awesome, you've got to make sure to remind the big bad boys who's really in charge around here!"

Delilah laughed and wheeled away from the table to high-five Rose before turning her attention to Abby and DiNozzo's dad who had just joined the table. Rose and I stared after her for a moment before turning to McGee who smiled, "she's a firecracker. She almost lost her spirit when she was in that explosion, but she's managed to get back to her old snarky and lovely self," he stared at her with a smile on his face. Rose just looked at me pointedly and I nodded. She was right, I was letting the fear of "what if's" hold me back now. What happened, happened, and I couldn't continue to let it control me. Of course, the nightmares would probably not stop and I would always tell her what was on my mind, but I couldn't let it hold me back from what I wanted in life: Rose. I worked protecting Christian but I loved Rose and she was my life: my reason for being, now and forever.

We sat down around the table and ordered food and drink. I was listening to McGee and DiNozzo exchange quips with one another while Abby and Jimmy practically salivating over some new scientific marvel that they had read about earlier. Ziva and Rose seemed to be hitting it off, trading war stories and combat techniques while DiNozzo Sr. and Delilah argued over some political jargon, smiling all the way. Even Dr. Mallard and Gibbs were talking to each other, watching the others with a sort of look that a father or grandfather may give to his children. Rose's hand sought out mine and I laced our fingers together, feeling at peace more so than I ever did back at Court, except when I spent time with Lissa and Rose's friends, my friends.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: TRIGGER WARNING! There is some sexual violence in this chapter! If you do not want to read it, please skip the line-break in RPOV part! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!**

* * *

"So, can you finally tell me about your tattoos?" Abby was practically bouncing in her chair as our plates were pulled away.

Rose laughed and looked at her with amusement, "well, I'm impressed with your amount of patience. You could rival Lissa when it comes to getting her way on, just about anything."

I snorted into my coffee cup and shuddered, thinking about Lissa being even more impatient than Rose when it came to getting her way, and Rose's impatience is practically legendary. Rose turned her head around and pulled her shirt down slightly then motioned for me to point out each mark and their meaning, "this one is the most common on a Guardian. We get it at our Promise ceremony. It's a mark that indicates we took our oath to guard and protect Moroi with our lives," I outlined Rose's Promise Mark and smiled, "Rose's is a bit differently placed than most because she had kills already under her belt before she got it," I turned my head and lifted my hair so they could see the difference between Rose's artfully placed Mark against my own. I turned back around and pointed to the next one, "this one is common for many a dhampir, even unpromised ones. This is a _molnija_ , which each shows a single Strigoi kill. Finally, this one is a _Zvezda_ or battle mark. It indicates that the owner was in a battle where the kills were too high or too hard to count individually," I unconsciously placed my hand against Rose's battle mark, remembering that night: both the good and the bad. I pulled away the second I felt Rose flinch under my touch-she rarely opposed to me touching her tattoos, but she was already on edge and I knew her mind was recalling that night as well.

She turned back around, looking around the shocked expressions that filled the table, "and the questions may begin."

DiNozzo whistled, "you've got quite a few marks there. When did you make your first kill… or kills?" Ziva shot him a look of contempt as if what he asked was the most offensive statement on the planet. Rose snorted at his question but I felt her tense slightly. Despite everything, she still felt responsible for what happened when she made those kills.

"I don't mind answering, Ziva," she turned to DiNozzo, "I made my first two kills when I was seventeen."

DiNozzo nodded but McGee piped up, "what happened? Can you tell us? Unless you don't want to. I mean, that's probably not easy to talk about."

Rose shook her head and straightened up, there had been a rather large-scale attack, for us, nearby. It put a lot of parents on edge and since Christmas was coming soon, the school decided to take the students to a ski lodge. There would be plenty of room for the students, guardians, teachers, and parents. It was a lot of fun!" She smiled wistfully before her face turned serious, "we had heard that there was another attack at another house and the guardians had found a potential lead where some of the Strigoi were: Spokane, Washington. It was near enough, a few hours away, but the guardians couldn't do anything without approval, especially since preemptive strikes weren't sanctioned back then, but they were deciding if we should check it out anyway. I had found out and, in a rather tactless moment, let slip to Mason where the Strigoi were. He was an old friend of mine…" I squeezed her hand and she took a breath, "anyway, he decided to take Mia and Eddie to the hideout and take them down. I took Christian to get them back and yell at them for being that reckless. I'm reckless, but I'm not stupid… well… not completely stupid… So, we decided to check out the hideout anyway since it was the middle of the day, found no Strigoi and left. We, unfortunately, got captured and were held for a few days. We managed to escape when we tricked the humans holding us but… the Strigoi who had held us there were at home when we were leaving. I stayed behind to give the rest a chance to escape but Mason… he came back for me and was killed. I sort of fell into a rage? Of sorts, and beheaded the two Strigoi. Well, I beheaded one and Mia came back to distract the other until I could do the same to it…" she trailed off as her head dropped and she looked at her lap, but a few moments later, she looked back up with her usual Rose "fire" back and smiled.

Abby threw herself at Rose, tears glistening in her eyes, "oh Rose! You poor, poor thing! Losing your friend like that! Did you know him long?"

Rose soothed her quickly and I smirked, leave it to her to comfort others, no matter how she felt. She would always put others first, no matter who they were and I loved her all the more for it. Gibbs was watching me and an understanding look crossed his face. He even looked at me with sympathy before it was quickly wiped away into his usual slightly sarcastic yet blank stare. McGee seemed to be a little pale as he processed the story and even DiNozzo seemed at a loss for words. Ziva, however, seemed to be unfazed at the idea of losing someone that young but her eyes showed that she felt that pain at losing someone before their time.

Rose grabbed her wallet out and pulled a picture out from it and began to point to the figures in it, "you already know Lissa and Christian. This is Eddie and this is Mason," everyone passed around the picture, "that picture was taken at the ski lodge just after Christmas. We had just come off the slopes and had a snow ball fight, me, Eddie, and Mase. Christian and Lissa met up with us a little later."

Everyone fell quiet for a bit longer before DiNozzo Sr. made a comment under his breath which DiNozzo scoffed at him, turning bright red, much to Ziva's amusement and, just like that, the conversation began to flow like normal around us.

An hour or so later and we were on our way back to Gibbs' house. Gibbs had yet to say much other than a word or two but as we pulled up into his driveway, he turned to me, "tell me about why that battle mark bothers the two of you so much. I'm not one to judge, especially when it comes to others and their past, but that star and the marks right next to it seemed to be, separate, somehow and they look different than the others and I want to know why."

Rose made a sarcastic noise from the back seat but it was clear that Gibbs would not let this go so I agreed and we all walked into his house. Gibbs went to the fridge and grabbed a bear for myself and him and brought a soda for Rose.

"Alright, what do you want to know?"

"Everything."

So, we told him everything, from the beginning of the battle to when she followed me to Russia to my eventual Restoration and even to Lissa's coronation. I had no idea why Rose felt so compelled to tell Gibbs the whole story, but she did and I offered my input where I could. I had to leave when she explained why she had gone to Russia and made those kills, the marks that were separate from the others by the star on the left side of her neck. I felt almost claustrophobic and had to get some cold, fresh air while I could. I closed my eyes and forced my fears and nightmares back, feeling my anxiety beginning to spike. I heard the wood under my hands protest at the pressure of my palms, but I felt nothing, focusing on my breathing and the cool night air. Before I could lose myself to my own thoughts, I felt the brush of a soft, small hand trace over my knuckles and I relaxed slightly looking down at Rose. Despite it all, she was my rock and constant, and she held me together when I deserved nothing less than to shatter apart and fade into the darkness.

"Gibbs wants you to come back in, I think he wants to share a thing or two and probably tell us how stupid and dangerous it was for me to do what I did and yadda yadda…" Rose smirked up at me, her eyes reflecting the porch light as she led me back into the living room.

Gibbs was staring at his fireplace where he had coaxed the flames to life. He didn't look up as we walked to sit back on the sofa where we had been before, both of our drinks now abandoned on the coffee table, "I know you didn't divulge every moment in between nor would I ask you to, but thank you for telling me what you did. I do not like to break my rules, ever, but it appears that might have to be the case to get things done from here on out. I know Ziva, Tony, and Tim went over a few with you but there are plenty more to learn. After we solve this case, I think I will have to spend some time teaching them to you and you will have to learn them. I do not trust easily and less so with those who hide things from me on purpose. However, after what you told me, Rose, I can say that you two have earned my respect and that is harder to earn than trust with me. Because you told me what you did, I will do two things: first, I will let you in on some of my life and why I know better than anyone, how much we suffer before we find any happiness in this world. Second, I will let you lead this investigation. That means, you can do this your way because I'm pretty sure that we will have no way of catching these guys without using some rather conventional ideas and ideas that I doubt would be approved by the higher ups on our end."

We sat down once more and by the end of the conversation, we were shocked into silence. Gibbs' whole team seemed to be like our little family back home: full of broken souls who found a way to move forward and do the best they could to bring justice and closure to others.

* * *

Three days. It had been three days and we were no closer to finding Robert and his group of Strigoi. It was like he had completely disappeared off the face of the Earth. Rose was currently giving me the cold shoulder after a rather heated discussion on the next course of action. We were of two minds: seeking him out or waiting for him to slip up. We already had 2 more bodies added to the list, two more Moroi and we were no closer. We had decided to split up and Rose went with DiNozzo and McGee to gather clues around the scene and check for witnesses while Ziva and I were to talk to a local branch of a gang who frequent the area in hopes they had seen something out of the ordinary. I sighed and rubbed my temples as I listened to the smug "ring leader" practically brag that he was untouchable to the US government.

Ziva muttered something under her breath and I watched as her hand twitched on top of her gun and smiled, despite my headache-she reminded me of Rose, deadly, beautiful, loyal to a fault, and very impatient. She glared at the man whose hand had been inching its way towards her and looked like she hoped he would touch her, just so she could break his fingers. We were about to up our "interrogation" techniques when Ziva's phone rang. She picked it up and her usual blank face morphed into one of worry and anger: something was wrong, very, very wrong. Her eyes flicked towards me and I knew something must have happened to Rose and the others and I felt my blood run cold. We left without another word, despite the cajoling and insults being thrown our way and slipped into Ziva's car, which sped off the second the doors were closed. I felt my anxiety spike as Ziva raced back towards headquarters without telling me much of what was going on. It was all I could do to keep from screaming at her to tell me what was going on and hoped we wouldn't find more bodies when we returned, especially one that would send my world crashing down.

* * *

 **(RPOV)**

My head felt like it was going to explode and I carefully sat up, trying to take in my surroundings. I groaned as I took stock of my body: I hurt everywhere and I think had at least a few broken bones. My skin felt like it was on fire and was oversensitive to the cold ground I sat on and my arms were numb from being forced behind my back. I looked around the room I was in and saw two other heaps in the ground next to me. I stood up as best I could and carefully shuffled over to the first heap I saw. I poked it carefully with my toe and saw, despite the lack of light, that it was Tim. I saw he had a few nasty bruises and cuts and one rather large burn against his neck that disappeared into his shirt. I nudged him with my foot, trying to shake him awake then, once he began to stir, I turned towards the other pile-which I was assuming was Tony- and did the same to him. I saw them both stir and walked around the room, taking in what we had, or didn't have as I recalled what had happened to us:

 _We had been heading back from the latest crime scene. I was listening to Tim and Tony arguing over something stupid that had happened with a book that Tim apparently was writing. I was staring out the window, thinking about what Dimitri and I had been arguing about and I had to agree with him: we couldn't just go rushing in, we needed a plan. The problem was, that we were running out of time and I was worried that Robert would come after us first. Being caught with your pants down would be so much worse but I had to trust that we could catch him and his associates: they had to screw up, they would screw up. I sighed and tuned back into the conversation when I noticed a car that had been parked a few blocks away from the crime scene we had just left- I only noticed it was the same car because it seemed too flashy to belong near the marina we were at and it had an odd license plate cover. I thought I was being too paranoid until I felt the car jerk to the right then left: Tony had noticed it too. What he didn't notice, however, was that there was a second car that had been ahead of us. I pointed to the car but it was too late; Tony turned the car to avoid the truck heading for us, but it T-boned us, causing the car to flip and I hit my head hard, blacking out._

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!" I slid down against the wall I was leaning against and closed my eyes against my building irritation and headache, trying to calm myself down and find a way out.

"Oh, my head… I feel as bad as you look, Probie… And I mean that on your best of days," Tony groaned as he managed to sit up, wincing as his arms were pulled even further behind him as he forced himself up.

Tim just glared at him for a moment before turning his attention to me, "so, what are we going to do now? Since we're kinda stuck in here with no real way out?"

I sighed and looked at the two men sitting in front of me, "we wait, we gather, and we pray that Dimitri and the others are able to find us before it's too late, or that we're able to escape."

They both looked at me for a second before I saw the resolve slip onto their faces, showing me that either they had been in similar situations as this or they were just that good at hiding their emotions and, despite myself, giggled at the thought, "wow, you two would make great guardians with those emotionless masks and all!" They both stared at me before Tony managed a snicker and Tim even cracked a smile. I was about to say something else when the door to our prison opened, revealing a pale face that I made me groan internally, not because we were in danger, but because I would rather be passed out than have to listen to what was coming next.

"Ah, the bloodwhore and her shit-faced lackeys are finally awake! I'm surprised at you, Rose, that you managed to coerce two human men to help you out," the man snorted, "although, maybe not so much. You always were way too easy, but I guess a Moroi's bite wasn't enough for you anymore, huh? You just had to whore yourself out to a few humans on the side too?"

I rolled my eyes as Tim bristled at the statement, "oh please, like you could have ever kept up with me. I require someone who can actually to the distance, and can handle being a little rough…" I sighed, knowing working him up wasn't the best idea but when in doubt-sarcasm it out, "I would have hated to break you or something… you Moroi always seem so… _fragile_ ," I whispered the last word with disgust, screwing up face up mockingly. I knew I had overstepped when his hand flew out, smacking me so hard that I thought my neck was going to break from the force, but I managed to turn back towards him, a smirk on my face at the dangerous glint in his eye.

"Yeah, I suppose that's true. I'm sure you got the best of both worlds from Belikov when he was in Russia, huh? Got to have someone play rough with you and got the high of a Strigoi bite, much more potent, wouldn't you agree?" I saw triumph flash in his eyes when I felt my body betray me as my heart sped up in anticipation of that bite.

I felt the others move next to me, but refused to look at them when I knew they would have questions and probably look at me with some twisted form of disgust or confusion-or both- and looked at the man in front of me, my ever-present guardian mask slipping over my features, turning them bored and sighed, "oh Jesse, you had so much potential. You could have just been a normal douche who had some dhampir lover while you got married to some snobby royal just to please mummy and daddy but no. You and your pasty white coward ass just had to get drunk and run smack dab into a Strigoi. I'm sure they have regretted Turning you, why else would you have to play baby sitter to an unarmed dhampir and two humans? Don't worry, I'm sure you'll work your way back up into your boss's good graces, if you can manage to keep your mouth shut at least."

His eyes turned steely and I was waiting for another strike, but he seemed to get an idea in his head instead as a cold smile slowly creeped its way onto his face, "no, I think the boss would be okay with this… I mean, he did say keep you alive, not undamaged…" I flinched as he made his way over towards me and I felt my body being pulled in two very different directions: part of me was hoping, praying, for a bite while the other was begging to get closer just so I could inflict some damage on his stupid face.

* * *

I, unfortunately got neither as his hand snaked down and sliced my shirt in half, exposing my bra, before he ripped that off too, leaving me only clothed from the waist down. I felt the two men behind me shift and kept my face trained forward. I was never bothered about being exposed and I wouldn't start now, especially when I knew this was just a humiliation tactic that Jesse wanted to use.

"Ah, there we go, there's my little bloodwhore now. Except, you're face isn't right either…" he leaned down and roughly grabbed one of my breasts and squeezed it to the point of pain. I refused to react or make a noise as he squeezed and pulled on it, leaving a bruise in the shape of his hand over it. He smirked and leaned down to the other breast and I let out a small gasp as he bit hard on it, drawing blood and filling my body with the high, that high I secretly craved and revolted against ever since Russia. Jesse looked behind him and through my hazy vision, I watched as two other Strigoi moved forward and grabbed Tim and Tony, roughly biting down on each of them and pulling them from the room, "now that we're alone my little plaything… I think it's time we finished what we started back at St. Vlads, what do you think?"

Despite the euphoria I was feeling, I felt my body cringe away from him in revulsion as bile rose in the back of my throat. He pulled away and laughed before slapping me again and walking behind me, grabbing me by the throat and pulling my head back so I was forced to stare at the ceiling, "what, no quips or barbs now, Rosie? No quick wit nor sarcastic jab? Not even a punch or kick? Well, I can say I'm disappointed, I would have thought that that Belikov shit would have trained you to have some stronger resilience, but maybe he didn't want to. Maybe he liked you being his little plaything, but that's okay, because now you get to be mine."

* * *

I felt cold metal against the back of my neck and guessed that a blade was pressed there. I gasped as Jesse yanked at my hair and pulled it tight, then I felt almost nothing except a soft brush against my neck where my hair now lay, cut short and ragged. I felt myself fall forward and my arms shot out, now cut loose from their bindings, to catch myself. I was weakened from the blood loss and the bite as well as lack of proper sleep and food since the guys and I had agreed we would get some breakfast after we checked out the scene. I forced myself to sit up just as Jesse moved to the corner of the room to pick up something sitting there. As he opened the door, I noticed what he was grabbing was a camera, and it had been recording the entire time. I knew what would happen and I prayed that Dimitri would be strong enough for me, for him, to get me and the others out of here, before it was too late.

 **DPOV**

We had arrived back at NCIS headquarters and were being informed of what had happened. Apparently, Abby had gotten a call from McGee saying that DiNozzo had suspected someone was following them when they were on their way back from the crime scene. She had been on the phone with him until there was a crashing sound then the line had gone dead. She had tried to call him back again and again, but to no avail and she even tried calling DiNozzo and Rose but got no response their either. We had been sitting around, trying to wrack our brains for any clue we could think of, when Abby's phone, literally, screamed. I jumped at the sound, startled, as Abby grabbed it and answered quickly. Her eyes grew wide and it was clear whoever was on the other side was not who she hoped it would be.

"Why would you want to talk to him…" Abby's gaze flickered to me as she nodded, quietly moving towards McGee's computer and typed something in, "okay, okay! I'll give him the phone! D-Dimitri… for you…" she held out her phone and I made a point to sound curious and walked quietly towards her as Ziva purposefully made noise in the background as if the phone was moving away, not that I was moving towards it.

"Belikov," I stated into the phone, staring at Abby who mouthed _keep them talking_. I nodded and turned away, feeling my mask slip on so I could play the role I needed to in order to get Rose and the boys back.

"Dimitri, what a pleasant surprise! I was wondering if our little show here would garner the attention of her Royal Majesty or not! It's so wonderful to know that she cares about her people so much that she would send only the best to take care of things here!" I internally flinched at the cold voice, recognizing it instantly as Robert Doru.

"What do you want from me, from us, Robert? To make me suffer? Rose maybe?" I stopped myself, knowing that getting angry would solve nothing and would probably play right into Robert's hands.

He chuckled, the cold sound of it raising the hair on the back of my neck, "not at all! Well, it didn't start out that way. I wanted to build my own little empire, and I thought that Washington DC would be perfect. I mean, it IS the capital of this fine country and would be an excellent place for a proper ruler, don't you think? So, I gathered some followers and made some children… well peons really… but you know how children get, so unruly and so temperamental. I suppose they did get a bit carried away a few times," he sighed and I cringed, forcing myself to not break Abby's phone, "but they did receive their punishments, just like any child should. I digress, we aren't here to chat about that, I'm sure you're all VERY worried about Timothy, Anthony, and Rosemarie, correct?" I said nothing, practically shaking with fear and anger but if he noticed my silence, he ignored it, "I was hoping to snag you, but I decided this would be even better, especially when little Miss Rosemarie has yet to face her crimes. I only find it fair that I be her judge, jury, and executioner, don't you?"

I forced myself to breathe and gripped the phone as tight as I dared, "don't you dare hurt them… If you do I'll-"

"You'll what? You think you can hurt me? Actually, I should be thanking you! After you and Rose murdered my brother and left me to die, I thought that would be the end of it for me. Instead, a rather lovely couple found me and brought me back into the motel and nursed me back to health. Or, so they assumed. I was half crazed with hunger by then and when they fell asleep one night, I decided to get stronger and rid myself of my own mania. It worked, for a time, and being Strigoi is so much better than being a half-crazed shell of a man who could barely function," I turned my head towards Abby who was staring at the computer screen, her eyes narrowed. I hoped this was enough because I wasn't sure how much longer I could keep this up.

"I'm sure you are just a wonderful and powerful man now, aren't you, Doru?" I bit out the statement, the anger within me now caged and cold, turning almost menacing. I felt, for a moment, as if I was a Strigoi myself, that caged and dark anger was only there when I was Strigoi and I flinched, forcing myself out of that. I had to be strong for Roza, I had to get her back and I couldn't do that if I was debilitated by fear and grief.

He chuckled again and I heard a noise on from the computer Abby was working on. She looked at the screen then dragged something from the screen to the larger one, "that file that was just sent to you should give you the… encouragement you need to find what you're looking for… I should warn you though… the clock is ticking and I think I've given you all enough time to find me, if you can. I hope for your sake you do, because your friends' lives depend on it."

The line went dead and I nearly dropped the phone before shutting it and placing it on the desk next to me. Ziva snatched the remote next to the large screen and clicked it three times. In quick succession, the files opened to reveal pictures and a video of DiNozzo, McGee, and Rose. My heart nearly stopped when I saw them and, for the first time in a long time, I wished I could run the other way because I wasn't sure if I would survive this long enough to save them.

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 **A/N: Sorry for the delay on getting this out, I've kept busy at work and school but here's a slightly longer chapter for you guys patiently waiting! Thanks for the follows and reviews, keep them up, they help me improve! I'll get the next one out soon as I can!**

 **Sincerely,**

 **strangemind**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: Sorry this took awhile. Things at school are ramping up! Yay midterms! (blech)**

 **First off, huge thanks and shoutout to Gigi256 for the reviews and encouragement, it's been fantastic to talk to you and get some insight from a Dimitri POV writer!**

 **Second, thanks to those who have been reading and reviewing! It helps me keep on keeping! Again, WARNING FOR POTENTIAL MILD TRIGGERS!**

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"Okay, the phone call didn't last long enough for me to pinpoint where it was coming from, but I was able to narrow it down to a thirty-mile radius near the marina where most of the vics have been found. There are a few buildings that look like they could be large enough to be inconspicuous and could probably hold a good number of people without being suspicious," Abby was typing away furiously at the computer as soon as Robert had hung up the phone.

I nodded numbly, unable to tear my gaze away from the three on the screen before me: all three looked worse for the wear but that wasn't what held my focus. I saw the looks in their eyes, although Rose's gaze wasn't as obvious: that high. They had all been bitten, beaten, and nearly stripped of their clothing, only wearing what was necessary to keep themselves covered. Rose's eyes were mostly clear and it was obvious she was furious and embarrassed by the position she had found herself in, making me wonder what or who could elicit such a reaction from her- strong enough that she could easily fight off the endorphin rush long enough to glare at the camera. What made it worse was the fact that her hair, her beautiful hair, had been cut jaggedly short, just barely being held back behind her ears. I felt myself tensing at the scene, growing angrier by the minute, wanting nothing more than to find Robert and his cronies and kill them-one by one as slowly and painfully as possible.

"You need to release that phone now. I am sure Abby would rather not have to purchase a new one," a female voice whispered next to me and I nearly jumped at its sound. I forced my hand to let go, one finger at a time, and let the phone drop into the outstretched hand underneath my own, "I understand how you are feeling, Dimitri, but we need a plan before we rush around like a cut off chicken. Running into this situation could get all of us killed, including our friends," I nodded as Ziva's voice penetrated my angry haze, forcing me to let out the breath I had been holding.

"I think you meant rush around like a chicken with its head cut off, and don't worry, we will find them! We just need some time, if I can just follow the e-mails, I might be able to pin-point the location further than the radius I got with the phone," Abby glanced up from the computer then nodded to herself and began to work once more on the computer.

Gibbs had been standing there in silence, his gaze never wavering from the screen before his attention slid towards me, "I've been there, right where you are. We will get them back, but Ziva is right. Running in without a plan will only get someone killed, or worse," he gave me a meaningful look and I felt myself tense up even more before managing a slight nod.

I knew they were right, but this, unbeknownst to them was forcing me to remember what I had been and what I had done to Rose and so many others. I just prayed that they would be okay and I could hold it together long enough to find them and bring them home.

* * *

 **(RPOV)**

I groaned and forced myself to sit up, shuddering against the cold in the room. I noticed, briefly, that my hands were now tied in front of me, giving me a chance to sit up and move around a bit easier. I shivered once again. I was freezing in the room, despite my natural ability to withstand extremes better than humans. I wondered, briefly, if Tim and Tony were doing okay, especially since Strigoi were not exactly known for their hospitality or even remembering that humans- and dhampirs to some extent- needed basic things like food and warmth to keep from, oh I dunno, dying! I blinked a few times as I realized why I had been awoken in the first place. I stared at Jesse's pale face for a minute longer before it registered that he was literally inches from me.

"If you're hoping to scare me to death, you've got another thing coming! I'm not exactly a stranger to waking up to red eyes and pale faces in front of me you know," I forced as much Rose-bravado into my speech, despite the fact I was cold, hungry, ready to burst, and disgustingly looking for another bite.

"Aww, c'mon Rose. Where are your manners? I was hoping you'd be a little more amiable now that you've had a nice taste of what's to come. Maybe you need another bite?" His eyes lit up with twisted pleasure as he saw my face betray my desire to feel that high again, "or maybe I just need to give you a small taste of what could happen if you actually gave me what I wanted," I forced myself to stay still as he slunk towards me, his hands running up my arms, across my chest, and down my stomach.

I forced myself to be still as his hands moved down my body, stopping just centimeters away from the edge of my panties. He drew his hand away, mistaking my shiver as desire instead of cold and revulsion. He smiled darkly and moved his lips against my neck, skimming his fangs slowly over the pulse point. This time, my shiver was from anticipation as I waited for him to break the skin and give me a chance to forget, just for a minute, about my predicament. _Just bite me already… please Dimitri…_ Thinking about him was like a bucket of cold water. I cringed away from Jesse's teasing bite, remembering how much this would set him back. I had to get out of here and rescue Tony and Tim and get us out before Jesse and whoever his boss was, presumably Robert, got a chance to show any of this to Dimitri. I knew this would be hard enough to explain to him once I was free, to explain my bruises and scars and hair, but if he saw me now, things would be so much worse. I took a deep breath and knew I had one choice: one way to get out of here before things could escalate.

He began to pull away, sighing with frustration with my lack of reaction before I forced out a whimper, "p-please… Jesse… P-please?" He froze and a cruel smirk flashed across his face.

"Since you asked so nicely… It'll feel so good to break that fiery spirit of yours, that one that Belikov let run rampant. I like you with shorter hair, you know, lets me show off your lovely throat and those beautiful bites," his fangs gleamed in the dim lighting as his smirk grew.

He leaned in once again but I shook my head, "n-not yet… Make me yours first… T-then bite me, please? I will never ask again… PLEASE!" I felt my body shake with false need as I shoved the bile back down my throat from letting him touch me let alone think he could have me. I just needed his guard down for a second then I could take him down.

He cocked his head to the side, thinking for a moment then he nodded, snaking his hand slowly up my leg, leaning in to nuzzle against my breasts roughly. I let him play with them for a moment before I whimpered and forced his head up towards mine just as his fingers brushed against my slit. He easily complied, not noticing my body's lack of reaction to his touch until it was too late. My bound hands flew around his neck and I threw myself to the side, causing him to scratch a long gash down my leg. I forced him back, planting my feet on either side of him with my pelvis against his back. I grabbed one of my arms as best I could and shoved his throat into the crux of my elbow. He thrashed hard against me but I held firm, locking my limbs into place as he pulled. He managed to nearly throw me off as he moved to stand, but I wrapped my legs around his waist from behind and doubled my efforts to knock him out with lack of air. He choked and sputtered as he righted himself and threw me against the wall: once, twice, three times before his eyes finally rolled into the back of his head and he and I slid down the wall.

I blinked a few times, winded and in pain from being thrown back but managed to regain my equilibrium long enough to search his person for the keys to the rooms and my bindings. I found the set but noticed none of them were small enough to fit the cuffs so I put the keys aside and wrenched his sweats off him and pulled them into myself. I tied the string as tight as I could and rolled it a few times so they weren't dragging on the floor then shoved the keys into my bra. I reached down as I heard him begin to stir and slammed his head as hard as I could against the cold floor three times then stood and walked quickly to the door. I pushed it open, thankful that the idiot forgot to close it, and closed and locked it as quietly as possible.

I took in my surroundings, noting that the hallway appeared to be abandoned but knew that there could be Strigoi anywhere. I walked quietly towards the direction I had seen Tim and Tony being dragged off to, hoping that I could find them and quickly.

* * *

 **(DPOV)**

"Damn…" We had had no luck in narrowing it down from the e-mail. Abby had traced it but it pinged off of too many proxy servers and the trail went cold. Gibbs had instructed Ziva to take me back to his place so I could cool down. I stared out the window before I finally broke the growing silence, "Ziva, can you take us to where Abby was able to narrow things down? If I could have a look around, I might be able to find them."

Ziva looked at me for a moment, we had just arrived at Gibbs' house, "I do not know. Are you positive that you would wait for reinforcements before you went charging in?"

I snorted, "I'm not the crazy one. That would be Rose, so yes. I would be able to wait, but sitting around isn't going to help. I know Abby will find a way to track them down, but I would feel so much better if I could help," I had just finished my sentence when Ziva nodded and peeled out, heading away from the direction of NCIS headquarters while simultaneously pulling out her phone to call in to Gibbs.

We had arrived an hour later at the edge of the vicinity that Abby had narrowed it down to and we stepped out of the car, pulling out our guns in the process. It was daytime, meaning we had very little to worry about outside, in the sun, other than a human or two, so we could easily wield firearms and incapacitate our attackers. She nodded at me once and signaled to move as quickly and quietly as possible. We had agreed to keep our phones on and hidden as best we could, just in case we happened to be captured by Robert's men and lead straight toward Rose and the others. I felt the tension radiating off of myself, knowing each step I took would lead me closer to Rose, whether dead or alive or… worse…

I shook myself out of my dark thoughts as we approached a building where there were two men standing outside. They appeared to be arguing over something, but neither seemed to be volatile towards the other, making me wonder if it was something important or not. Ziva swept back and around an adjacent building that would allow her to sneak up behind without being seen, so I waited and watched for her to pop up before moving in for the same reason. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as she moved into position then she twitched her wrist, causing her watch to catch a glimpse of sunlight, temporarily distracting both men who each fumbled to pull out their weapons. I snuck up and struck one, diverting the other's attention towards me. Before he could even cry out, Ziva had joined me and struck the man with the butt of her gun, watching him crumple to the ground. We quickly moved them out of sight, in case a patrol came by, and grabbed for any keys or cards they carried on their person. Finding what we needed, Ziva pulled out her cellphone and checked to see if Abby had sent word: she had, Gibbs and a few other agents were on their way to help where they could. Accordingly, I grabbed my phone out and sighed with relief when I saw the message it held: "here".

I showed Ziva the message and she understood, some local guardians were here to assist with taking down the Strigoi, as soon as we had determined which building they were in. Ziva and I opened the door as quietly as possible to check for signs of Strigoi or if we had happened upon some other group (which, knowing humans, was entirely possible). Ziva kept outside the building, watching my back as I took in the darkened entryway, straining all my senses to find a sign that this was what we were looking for. After a moment or two, I sighed and shook my head, walking back toward the front door. I looked towards Ziva and shook my head. She nodded and we went back towards the way we came in, moving towards the next building that could be large enough. As we got closer, I pulled her to a stop, staring at the large building in front of me. She waited until I let her go, her head cocked to the side as she regarded my tense demeanor. I waved her back and pulled out my phone, sending a message to the phone number that had told me reinforcements had arrived, giving them our exact location.

Ziva seemed to understand and sent a message to Abby, since Gibbs was apparently awful at anything technology related, and looked at me for further explanation.

"It's how they are behaving, the humans out front. They are, tense, fearful even. Not quite how most humans behave. Like the two we took out, either they were scouting out further or they had been there for other reasons. No matter what, whether they know who they are working for or not, humans are terrified of their Strigoi masters. They revere and respect them, but they are still, subconsciously, terrified," I whispered to Ziva as we made our way out of the building's line of sight.

"And how is it that you are aware of such minute things?" Ziva questioned me as we waited for the groups to join us.

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, "because, I was… WAS… one of them… Strigoi," she appeared ready to interrupt but I held up my hand, "no, I will not talk about it because I need to be focused right now and if I… delve back into those memories… I will be fairly useless. Yes, Gibbs knows, somewhat, of what happened. No, I'm not going to suddenly revert back."

A smile broke out on her face suddenly and I raised an eyebrow at her, "apologies, I am just relieved to understand why the haunted look in your eyes. Or, at least, part of that look. I understand running from your past and I certainly respect not wanting to discuss such matters as this. Do not worry, should you want to tell, I will be prepared to listen. Should you not, well, I am glad to have you on our side. I do not scare easily, but I can certainly agree with, after seeing you and Rose in action, Tony and Tim: you both are much safer to be friends with than enemies."

I blinked at her, unsure of how to respond to the sort of backwards compliment but shrugged. We returned to our vehicle as we saw a few cars and SUVs arrive. Gibbs got out of the car with Abby right behind him. Abby agreed to wait at the cars so she could be out of the line of fire and be a sort of director for anyone they needed: EMS, police, or Alchemists, who had been notified of impending casualties and records to be made. Gibbs had motioned for the group from the first SUV over: all who were wearing NCIS bullet vests. The groups from the second and third SUV moved towards us as well, keeping back slightly, waiting for me to give directions to them directly.

"Alright, here's how this is going to work. We will secure the perimeter and take out and hostiles we see outside. We will watch entrances and exits and offer cover fire while you and your teams head in," Gibbs extended his hand to give me a small earpiece.

I nodded and inserted the earpiece before turning to the other two groups while Gibbs gave orders to the NCIS group, "alright, we are looking for Guardian Hathaway, Agent DiNozzo, and Agent McGee. Any humans you come across, incapacitate by any means necessary-hopefully just incapacitate and not kill, but do what you must- any others you run into, you know what to do. We have the local group on standby, so once we get out our three known hostages we need to call in confirmed kills. There is only one in there I want absolute confirmation on, Robert Doru. If I can take him down myself, I will, but if someone else gets to him first, fine. Our first priority are Guardian Hathaway and the two agents," I directed the two teams of guardians quickly and quietly, and just in case the humans overheard us, I kept it as vague as possible other than intended targets.

Each team member had an earpiece in and was connected to the communications line as Gibbs would be the only one connected to us from the human's side of things. I took a deep breath and motioned to Gibbs that we could begin the raid. We watched as his men disappeared before Gibbs signaled to us to move. We ran quickly and quietly towards the building, anticipating a full-blown assault in front of us. I was taken by surprise when I finally reached the place and saw that most of the humans had either been bound or knocked out already, a few still fighting as hard as they could.

"Go get those idiots back, Belikov. We will be right here, waiting for you," I saw Ziva flash me a smile as she turned towards the group she was guarding.

I nodded to the guardians behind me and we fanned out, ready to go in. I kicked the door in, knowing the Strigoi were already alerted because of the ruckus that had taken place outside. We drew out our stakes and spread out, some heading up, some heading straight, and I headed down with a few guardians following behind me.

 _Hold on Roza, I'm coming for you._

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 **OKAY OKAY, so let me know what you think?**

 **Too much, not enough? I would love to get some input!**

 **As always, R &R puh-lease!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Hello, hello! Thanks to all the new views! I hope the story has been keeping you interested! To the Guest that reviewed most recently: yes, Strigoi inherently are 'serial killers' since they kill often. It's more the fact that the Strigoi has caught the attention of the human feds and therefore, would be labeled as a serial killer form the multiple kills. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

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Quiet, eerily quiet, almost as if the atmosphere itself was holding its breath, waiting for the eventual fallout that would occur down here. I felt the guardians behind me beginning to dissipate into teams of two down hallways or into rooms that branched off the hallway we were running down. I was falling into a cold determination, refusing to think about what Rose and the others could be going through, I couldn't let my emotions blind me and potentially cause more problems for the others because I lost focus at the wrong time. I stopped when I heard someone pounding on a door a few feet in front of me on the right and gripped my stake tightly, hoping that I had found someone. The guardian with me, Guardian Lee, moved in front of me to open the door while I tensed, ready to strike or embrace, depending on what awaited me. I nodded at Guardian Lee and she pulled the door open in one swift movement, causing the figured to fall onto the floor.

"I'm going to kill that stupid bloodwhore, right after I fuck her brains out, I'm going to drain her and watch her die as slowly and painfully as possible…" The figure growled as he struggled to right himself. I felt my steely resolve begin to snap as I heard this figure, this poor excuse of a creature, utter those words. It didn't matter who he was talking about, but I had a sinking feeling he was talking about Rose.

I felt my grip on the stake tighten, nearly to the point of pain as I strode forward and grabbed him by his throat and threw him into the wall. I faltered for a second when I realized who it was, "where is she, Jesse, what did you do with her?" My voice sounded dark and iced, even to me, making me flinch slightly. His eyes widened with apprehension for a second before they gleamed with malicious laughter. I slammed him back against the wall and held my stake up against his chest, "I will NOT ask again. Where. Is. She?"

Jesse sneered at me, "why, afraid that she has gotten a taste of the good stuff and doesn't want your sorry ass anymore? She gets to experience those lovely endorphins that you used to give her, poor thing was practically begging for them that I just HAD to indulge in her desires. After all, who wouldn't want to taste such a lovely creature and have her for their very own? I'm sure you know what I mean," he drawled, a look of sadistic satisfaction drew over his features as he watched me pale. I forced myself to still, thinking about the image I saw, that look of almost hatred that had crossed her face, enough irritation to fight off the endorphins that were clearly there. I felt my hand tighten against Jesse's throat as I realized that it had been him, he had touched her, bit her, hit her, cut her hair, and took her picture.

I didn't even realize I had done it, but before I could think, I slid my stake slowly into his chest, hearing him scream in pain as I hissed in his ear, "I warned you once, Jesse, there would be repercussions for giving unwanted advances on a female, particularly Rose, and now I can, without concern for you," I shoved my stake to the hilt in a swift motion and watched the light leave his eyes as they turned back, the red retreating from his irises.

Normally, I felt a mix of guilt and relief that I had taken a life but also freed a soul from entrapment. This time, however, I felt that same darkness that I had felt in that alley when we had killed Donovan all those months ago. The only thing keeping me from falling into that black abyss was the single thought of making sure Rose was okay. I backed away from the wall and let Jesse's body crumple to the floor, forcing myself to control my breathing. Now that he had been killed, I was able to take a closer look at his state and noticed that his shirt was very rumpled, and he was only in his boxers. That set me on edge, but I forced it back down, needing to look in the room to see if there was something, anything in there, that might clue me in as to where Roza was or if she, God forbid, was in there now. I walked in and noted there had been some sort of scuffle in the room seeing as there were scuffs and a nasty indent in the wall and floor. Other than that, the room was empty so I closed the door and continued down the hall with Guardian Lee trailing behind me, a concerned look etched on her face but she knew better than to comment on it since we had not completed our mission yet.

We walked in silence down the hall until we heard shouting emanating down from the room at the end. I noted there were only two doors between us and the end room so Guardian Lee took the room on the right and I took the left and we scanned the rooms as we ran by, making sure there weren't Strigoi in them. The last thing we needed was to have our backs blocked off as we retreated from the impending fight. Noticing there were no Strigoi in either-although Lee did motion that there was someone in the room she had looked in- we made our way to the end of the hall. This time, I grabbed the door and waited for Lee to get into position before I wrenched it open. I nearly faltered when I saw what was happening in front of me.

"GET UP YOU STUPID WHORE!" I saw Rose lying on the ground, barely moving and covered in injuries with McGee being held up by one of the three Strigoi in the room by his throat. Lee ran up to one of the Strigoi and kicked him, hard. The Strigoi who had addressed Rose was too distracted in his taunting to notice that I had approached him until I was nearly on top of him. His head snapped up as I threw myself against him, slamming him into the wall next to him. I felt Rose attempt to get up but I refused to look at her until I dealt with the current danger here and engaged the Strigoi in front of me, forcing him back and away from the third Strigoi, Rose, and McGee. Apparently, I had picked the "leader" of this little group and he was old. He and I began to fight, ignoring almost everything else in the room but each other. Vaguely, I heard Lee stake the Strigoi she had engaged and she moved to the other one who was holding McGee just as I heard Rose pull herself off the ground and saw, from the corner of my eye, her slam into the other Strigoi and grab McGee, pulling him to the ground and throwing herself on top of him. I smirked to myself for a moment before the Strigoi I had been fighting used the temporary distraction to throw me against the wall and pin me there.

I fought against him but felt his grip tighten around my throat, effectively cutting off my air supply and causing me to slowly black out. I thrashed harder against him, feeling my body beginning to shut down from lack of oxygen. I forced my hands out from under his grip and managed to punch him hard in the throat, causing him to cough and loosen his grip long enough for me to wrench him off me and thrust my stake into his heart. I collapsed against the wall, my breathing shallow and rough from the Strigoi pressing against my neck so hard. I looked around and took account of what was in the room: Guardian Lee looked a little worse for wear, her shirt torn and stained with blood, and a rather nasty bruise starting to form on her cheek. I saw Rose still slung over McGee but both were slowly moving into a sitting position, both looking beaten and bloody, but alive. McGee had that glazed look over his eyes, indicating still high off a bite and a few cuts and bruises along his neck and upper chest where they appeared to have grabbed him rougher than intended or he had managed, even high, to fight back. Rose looked disheveled and ready to pass out, her hair looked sleek with blood on the back and she had a nasty scrape across her stomach considering she wasn't wearing a shirt. I also noticed the pants she was wearing had rolled down a bit, sitting dangerously low on her hips, ah, so that's where Jesse's pants must have gone. I raised an eyebrow at her attire and she just shrugged, giving me a slightly unfocused smile, making me wonder if she had a concussion or something.

"Hey, he owed me after he took away my clothes and tried to convince me that I was missing out, ugh, no thank you. He wasn't good as a Moroi and he certainly wasn't good as a Strigoi," she shuddered, clearly trying to force humor and Hathaway sarcasm into her statement, but all it did was cause me to bristle and wish I had spent longer taking my anger out on him, "well, doesn't matter, we had better go let Tony out of his room. Apparently, they had to knock him out because he wouldn't shut up, even high on a Strigoi bite! I just got lucky and picked Tim's room first and found three Strigoi attempting to bite him to oblivion and take off his clothes," she made a face at the statement and hauled herself up onto unsteady feet before pulling McGee with her.

I shook my head and looked at her hands where a pair of handcuffs were bound tightly to her wrists, "I knew you were a bit haughty, but fighting with your hands literally tied and without a stake seems a little extreme, even for you, Roza," I couldn't help but inject my own humor, now that I knew she was safe and, somewhat, unharmed. I wouldn't dare touch her while we were on mission and certainly not with the immediate danger nearby, but I had to let her know that I was glad she was safe and okay.

She shrugged and sighed dramatically, "apparently, they trusted Jesse with a set of keys for the doors, but not for my bindings…" she wiggled her chest at me and I watched, partially mesmerized by her breasts, as a large set of keys found their way out of her bra and onto the floor where Guardian Lee bent down and picked them up, heading towards the door she had seen the figure behind, assuming that was DiNozzo.

McGee had managed to find his bearings and blinked a few times, staring almost drunkenly between the two of us before he coughed and sighed, "not the worst feeling in the world, although coming off the bite will be… quite the uh… experience?" He looked at Rose who just nodded, a smirk ghosting across her face. He rubbed his hands over his face and neck, wincing as he felt the bite marks and bruises decorating his neck like a necklace of sorts, "I could say that this is worse than being stuck on a ship and being sea sick the entire time I was on mission, but it's not… Being sick on a boat for months while investigating a 'top secret murder' is waaaay worse," he grimaced as he wobbled towards the hallway.

I shook my head and offered him a shoulder, which he gladly took and I handed my stake to Rose so she could be lead while Lee and I half-walked half-dragged McGee and DiNozzo back up the stairs and out. As soon as we cleared to the main floor, I radioed to Gibbs that we had his people, handing them over to the EMTs that had come surging forward to snatch anyone who came out of the building. They moved towards Rose, Lee, and myself but we all stepped back, turning and heading back into the building to take care of Robert. Now that my primary objective was completed, I wanted, no needed, to make sure his heart was stopped by my own stake (or at least, Rose's). Rose snatched a shirt that had been offered by Ziva and threw it on before picking up the stake I had loaned her. She turned questioningly to me and I reached into my duster and pulled out my second stake before we ran back into the building. I radioed into the other teams, trying to locate where Robert could be hiding, but, so far, none had seen him. On the positive side, we had seemed to take down quite the network of Strigoi, albeit most were new bloods and easily over-confident in their abilities. Not much longer, we had received word that the building had been declared "all clear" and we had to assume that Robert had, somehow, managed to escape the building in the middle of the day, or had not been here when he had called in the first place. Both seemed highly unlikely, however, so we had to assume we missed something. I was about to suggest we go back down stairs and do a re-sweep of the area, when I noticed Rose sway, her face ashen. She must have suffered more trauma than I had initially thought and I walked up to her, staring at her with worry. She tried to shrug off my concern, but even that little movement caused her to pitch towards the ground.

I was about to comment when I heard a cold, almost maniacal laugh echo from behind us, "well, I am impressed. Too bad Mr. Zeklos had to meet his untimely demise earlier, because I would have congratulated him on actually being as useful as he had claimed to be. I feel so lucky that my men had chosen to believe his pitying speech about being more use to us alive than dead, because that kid certainly knew how to make a potent neurotoxin. And, what's more? It seems to have quite the delayed effect. Ah well, it is nice to know that even as my empire falls, my greatest enemies will crumble along with me. Although, you may not die, Belikov, but I'm sure seeing your sweet heart perish before your eyes will do quite a bit of psychologic damage, maybe enough to send you into your own dark spiral, hmm?" I turned to the voice to see Robert Doru standing, well, leaning heavily against the wall, right in front of us. He looked as crazed as he did before, except for the addition of the dark, cold gleam in his eyes. I found myself unable to move, but luckily, the guardians from the other floors had arrived and the grabbed him, pinning him to the ground.

I stared at him for a moment before I found my voice, barely above a whisper, "what did you do to her, to them? How… How do I…" I trailed off as my thoughts began to race. I had to hope that someone could help fix this, but I wasn't sure where to go from here or even what to do. I forced myself to calm down and looked at Robert, "you got one thing right, you and your 'empire' will fall. But, Rose will pull out of this, as will McGee and DiNozzo. I'm assuming they had been poisoned as well," his eyes sparkled with dark amusement, meaning I had been correct in my assumption. I wasted no more time as I stood up and strode to him. In one swift and efficient movement, I shoved my stake into his heart and removed it before the red had a chance to leave his irises. I turned to the groups, "search the building, find anything that looks like a lab. Maybe he left the formula or instructions somewhere. I have a feeling we will need them if we want a chance to save them."

A group of guardians who had gone on the main floor got up immediately and left towards the way they had come, making me wonder if they had spotted something similar to my description earlier. A few others followed behind them and I pulled Rose to my chest, mumbling comforting words to her as I strode out of the building. I saw the EMTs working frantically over McGee and DiNozzo, both looking paler than the last I saw them, a few minutes ago. I marched over to the ambulance and told them what Robert had told me and that I was having a team search for any clues on what the neurotoxin could be. Just as I finished, Abby, Ziva, and Gibbs had all joined us and I repeated what I had said to the EMTs.

Abby nodded, "that will hopefully work. If I can get a formula, it'll be that much easier, but if not, that's okay! If I can get a sample of their blood, I might be able to figure out the neurotoxin myself and counteract it. Let's get Rose back to the lab and to Ducky. Ziva, go with the EMTs and Tim and Tony. I'm assuming that they all were poisoned with the same toxin and I'll send word to the doctors at the hospital. They can keep those boys alive while I figure this out. We'll get them back to normal," I nodded and followed Abby, still clinging to Rose and hoping that things were going to be okay.

Gibbs followed us and Ziva stayed behind, jumping into the ambulance with DiNozzo and McGee. Abby quickly unlocked the car and I slid in the back, gently laying Rose across my lap while Gibbs slid into the driver's seat, snatching the keys from Abby who had moved to the front passenger's seat. We were off well over the legal speed limit, but I didn't care. Rose was shivering and twitching in my arms, despite my best efforts to keep her warm.

Abby seemed to notice Rose's movements and nodded, "okay, looks like that's a side-effect of whatever toxin got into her body, that's good! That's very good," seeing my confused look she continued, "if it was a very deadly toxin, it would have been more severe and she would be dead or pretty much comatose at this point. We may have lucked out or it's because of her Dhampir genes that she's not dead yet, or near death. Either way, we'll get her taken care of, don't you worry about that."

All I could do is nod and pray that I wouldn't lose her, not again, and not like this. Mentally, I cursed myself again for getting carried away in my own self-loathing that I had wasted precious moments with her in the past and I cursed myself for getting so frustrated with her that we had argued, and she had opted to go with McGee and DiNozzo instead of me. Her and I both put her and them into this situation one way or another and if they died or suffered permanent damage, it would be on my head.

* * *

We arrived at NCIS headquarters and went in through the underground garage where Abby explained they ran forensics on vehicles or larger objects that couldn't be done in her lab. Gibbs leaned over a scanner, performing a retinal scan then stood as the elevator opened to us. By this point, Rose was sweating and very, very pale. I vaguely wondered if this is what she would have looked like should she have been Turned instead but quickly shook it off. We exited into Dr. Mallard's autopsy lab and noticed one of the slabs was covered in blankets and had what appeared to be a heating lamp hovering over it. I gripped her tightly to me again before laying her gently on the slab and forced my mind from considering that the next I saw her, would be on this slab again, but without the need for blankets. Abby quickly grabbed her arm and searched for a vein, drawing out enough blood into a few vials when my phone rang.

"Belikov," I listened for a moment then placed the phone onto speaker, "repeat what you said."

"We found the lab again, sir, and we scoured everywhere. There appears to be a few different formulations the Strigoi were working on. There were some neurotoxins and what appears to be some chemical warfare modifications to make them more potent in Moroi and Dhampir."

I nodded and looked at Abby, "take pictures and send them to me of everything you found, then get the Alchemists in there so they can grab what they need and burn the place down. The last thing we need is for people to discover these modifications, whether they be human or not."

"Affirmative," the call went dead. After a few moments, I received some messages containing the images I had asked for and Abby motioned for me to follow her. I hesitated, looking at Rose but knew that if we were going to figure this out, I had to believe in her own stubbornness and will to fight anything to her last breath.

"Don't worry, Duck and I will stay with her. You and I are both worried for our people, so let's get this fixed," I nodded once and followed Abby, feeling my mask fall into place. He was right, I had to fix this and now. Getting emotional would not help anyone. I followed Abby into the lift and we were whisked away to her lab.

We entered her lab and she set herself up right away, working on the blood she had drawn from Rose while directing me to send the pictures they acquired from my phone to her computer, so she could go through them, "judging from the fact that none of those exposed have died quite yet, we can knock out the seriously dangerous neurotoxins and focus our search. I would bet that it was an ingested neurotoxin, indicating that it's probably an inhibitor of some kind since it took so long for them to react to the substance. Assuming that they had been poisoned within the last few hours or so, it's got to be something that can be slower acting and very potent or reactive once it hits its target. Again, points to an inhibitor of some sort," I watched as Abby whirled around the lab, unsure if she was telling me her thoughts or if she was just speaking aloud. I stood by her computer and plugged my phone in, accessing the images and pulling them up on her screens.

I heard Abby move towards me and place a hand on my arm. I flinched slightly at the contact, for once caught off guard and turned towards her, "don't worry, Dimitri, they'll be okay. I promise that I can fix this!" I nodded at her and forced my body to relax, needing to focus on the problem at hand. Abby nodded and turned her attention to the screen while the machines behind us whirred to life, analyzing Rose's blood to see if there was anything out of the ordinary. Abby told me it might take some time so for me to head back to Rose. She would call Ducky's lab once she had some more information and would keep me updated.

I walked into the elevator and chose Ducky's floor, watching the doors slide shut. Once they did, I felt my guardian mask slip off. I leaned against the wall and felt my breathing come in short, ragged gasps. I had to get a grip if I was going to be any use to Roza or anyone else. We just had to get through this and then, once Rose was safe and healing, I could let go. I sighed as I recalled the last time I had felt this way: the day she had been shot. It should have been fatal, she was lucky, the doctors had said, but I knew then she was a fighter. Sure, a bit of luck probably helped too, but she fought and she was stubborn, heaven help me I knew she was stubborn. She would be damned, in her words, if she left me, Lissa, and Christian to our own devices. I smiled at that and had to believe that she would pull through, just like she did before.

The doors to the elevator opened back up and I stepped out, walking towards Ducky's lab where Rose was. Ducky and Gibbs were standing in there, talking quietly to each other. Well, Ducky was talking while looking over files at his desk and Gibbs was leaning against the wall, watching Rose's sleeping form with a dark look in his eyes, "Jethro, are you listening?" His head snapped towards Ducky as I walked in. He looked about to respond but trailed off as I walked up.

"Are you alright, Gibbs?"

"Yeah. Got anything for us?"

I shook my head, "no, Abby sent me back down here to check on Rose while she runs her tests and checks the images for anything that might help," Gibbs nodded and sighed.

"Well, if you're here, I'm going to update Leon and call Ziva for some information. Let me know what you find out, Belikov. See you later, Duck," he pulled out his phone and stepped out of the lab towards the elevator.

I raised my eyebrow at Ducky who just shrugged and sighed, "don't try to analyze him. He's an enigmatic person with a long, long past. He does what he does because he's found it works, and that includes treating his team like a family. Don't let his brusqueness throw you, he's worried. He's worried for his team and he's worried for you and Rose."

I nodded, "oh I can tell. He hides well, but guardians are just as good at hiding, and even better at reading, emotions. I appreciate the worry and I'm sorry that his people got put into danger and were dragged into our fight."

Ducky smiled and shook his head, "as Gibbs would say: rule 6, never say you're sorry, it shows weakness. Gibbs doesn't believe in it being your fault. Or, at least, not completely your fault. Everyone makes their choices and must pay the consequences, whether they are good consequences or bad."

I was about to respond when I heard a weak laugh behind me, "oh, Comrade, you've found your Zen life lessons' soul mate. I'm impressed," I turned towards Rose to see her eyes were open. She looked pale and covered in sweat, but she was awake, for now.

I walked up to her side and put my hand on her cheek, "please tell me, why do you constantly feel the need to give me a heart attack? I know I'm 'old' but please stop making me age faster than necessary. I would like to make it to 30 without grey hairs you know."

She just smirked at me, pain in her eyes but they also sparkled with her usual mischief, "where's the fun in that, Comrade? I've got to keep you on your toes. Good for the reflexes and all that."

I sighed and shook my head, "go ahead and sleep, Roza. You need to focus on fighting whatever you managed to get into. I'll be here when you wake up," Rose nodded and drifted back rather quickly. That worried me more than if she had actually told me how she was feeling. I knew she was not feeling well if she was listening to me. Ducky grabbed a chair from his desk and placed it next to the table that Rose lay on. He walked over to the desk again and seemingly tuned out while I sat down and held Rose's hand, watching her face carefully.

* * *

I heard a pinging sound for what felt like an eternity later and heard Ducky move to a device on his desk, "Dr. Mallard. Ah, Abby. So, have you managed to isolate what this could be?"

" _I have Ducky! We got really, really lucky. It looks like the Strigoi injected them with concentrated tetrodotoxin. Rose's blood showed high levels of it so I'm guessing it had been injected right before we had arrived to get them."_

I strode over to the desk, "so, what does that mean?"

" _It means that she basically was injected with a toxin that puffer fish have. It's common enough in humans. Most often, humans are exposed to it via ingestion because the puffer fish wasn't cooked or prepared properly. For the most part, we have to just let it pass her system and keep her as comfortable as we can. It'll go away on its own. If things get a bit hairy, we can give her some medicine but she, Tim, and Tony should all come out of this relatively safe. I'll send word to the hospital where the boys are and let them know what I found. Oh, you might want to show your Alchemist friends what the Guardians found in the lab. I couldn't understand all of it, but there appeared to be some chemical enhancements that had been specifically designed to combat Dhampir and even a way to reverse "Anti-Strigoism" as the sheet says. Anyway, I'm going to make up an injection for Rose that'll help clear out the worst of it from her blood-stream and we'll go from there."_

I nodded and fell back in relief, she was going to be okay. Abby would see to it, "we recently made a discovery with restorations. If a dhampir is restored, they are unable to Turn back due to the Spirit's magic that flows through them permanently. We are curious if we can recreate such a measure without having to Restore since it takes so much magic to do so. Sonya, a friend of ours, is hoping to find a way to fuse the magic into our bodies directly. We haven't been successful yet, but we are hopeful to find the links soon. If they are hoping to reverse our process, it concerns me that they might have inside information from someone at Court. It'll have to be investigated at a later date, but thank you, Abby. This will help us immensely, and thank you for helping Rose, DiNozzo, and McGee."

I heard Abby chuckle, _"it's what I do! And I am fantastic at my job. Hey, once things are done here, can you send me Sonya's information? I would love to get into contact with her and maybe offer another opinion, especially since I have a basic grasp on how things work in your world!"_

I shook my head, slightly amused at this woman's unending enthusiasm and spirit, but promised to let Sonya know if that would be okay and give Sonya Abby's information instead, should she choose to contact her. Abby signed off, promising to get to work on an injection to help speed up Rose's recovery. I turned to Ducky who just smiled at me and nodded, walking towards the elevator, mentioning going to find his assistant who had disappeared on him. I took this time to pull Rose up into a sitting position and hop up on the table behind her, cradling her fevered body to my own and wrapping her in my duster. I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply, whispering to Rose and rocking her gently as she slept.

* * *

I blinked as the lights turned back on. They must have turned off since I had barely moved, making me wonder if they had some sort of motion sensor in them. I noticed that I was no longer sitting up straight, instead half slumped over, showing I must have dozed off. It was incredibly hard to remain in this position for extended periods of time, especially asleep, but my body and mind had been pushed pretty far after the ordeals of the day and it must have shut down on its own. I snorted at the thought of my body overcoming my own control and willpower, making note to keep that silent from Rose, lest she ever let me live that down. I turned my attention to the reason the lights had flickered back to life, noticing Abby and Ziva standing in the doorway, smirking at me.

"Oh, don't let us disturb you. I just came in to check on Rose. I had come in earlier with the injection, but you were both asleep. I couldn't move either of you, so I just turned the lights off after I gave it to her. I'm surprised that neither of you noticed me come in and leave, you both must really be out of it!"

I raised my eyebrow at Abby and nodded, "I guess. I don't get easily snuck up on. You must have some serious stealth skills or something."

Abby nodded, "Ziva's taught me a lot. It's a great way to spook people. I'm determined to be as good at sneaking up on people mid conversation as Gibbs, especially when people are talking about me! He is fantastic at doing-"

"Doing what, Abbs?"

Abby gestured behind her, "see? He knows!"

Gibbs looked at Abby for a moment longer before turning towards Ziva, "so, how are our boys doing?"

Ziva pulled herself away from the doorway and held her phone up, "they are both on their way to recovery. It must be very effective considering they were both complaining about the 'food and company being of equal disgust' before I left. I do not understand how those two can manage to claim to be, as Tony says, 'bros' when they are constantly bickering."

I chuckled before I looked at Rose, noticing her skin color was back to normal, "does that mean Rose should be waking up soon?"

Before anyone had a chance to answer, Rose opened her eyes and smirked up at me, her eyes sparkling with mischief, "I woke up a-while ago, Comrade, but you looked so cute that I didn't have the heart to wake you up. I must have dozed back off. If you don't mind though, I am a bit toasty and my butt is completely numb from this metal slab, so, let's get off this thing so I can go to the bathroom. I would like to not feel totally disgusting," I unwrapped my arms from her and she slid off, stretching and groaning at the feeling, "oh, Ziva. It's really easy to understand that 'bros' tend to argue and fight. It's how they communicate. Us sarcastic folks tend to do that. We do that to cover up emotions, especially ones we might not be good at showing or processing. I do it with Christian all the time. I love the dude like a brother, but he drives me absolutely batty!"

Ziva looked at Rose like she had a second head, "I am sorry, batty? What is 'batty'?"

"It means he drives me nuts, insane, crazy?" Her eyes crinkled as Ziva's lit up in recognition, "it's similar to the feeling siblings or close friends often feel. You absolutely love them and will do anything for them, but there are times they will get on your nerves, right?"

Ziva shrugged but nodded, "my sister never drove me 'batty' but there are times that working here can make me feel like I am part of a very, quirky, family."

Rose snickered, "that's exactly it! Tim and Tony just drive each other up the wall because that's just what they do and who they are, but at the end of the day, they care about each other and will do anything to help the other, yes?" Ziva nodded, "well, I'm going to go to the bathroom before I explode, 'scuse me all."

She stumbled a bit but managed to get to the bathroom and closed the door, "well, once she's back on her feet. You two need to come upstairs and finish briefing us on what the hell happened. Of course, we need to get our paperwork straightened out and get copies to your people, so we can call this case officially closed," I looked at Gibbs and nodded as he and Ziva walked towards the elevator.

A few minutes later, we were gathered in front of the screen and on call with Lissa and a representative from the main Alchemist branch in the US. We had debriefed both Lissa and the Alchemist quickly and efficiently. The Alchemist told us that they were expecting and official report as soon as we had returned to Court to be filed with Guardian Croft and copy sent to them, including any and all pictures or paper taken from the scene. I agreed and told them that we would be returning at the end of the week. The Alchemist signed off and Lissa turned her attention to Rose and myself, keeping up her regal façade but clearly worried and distressed at hearing what happened. Rose shook her head, indicating now was not the time nor place, but she would tell her when we got home. Lissa signed off and we turned towards Gibbs and Vance.

"I believe that, while I wish things had gone differently, this concludes our services. I know apologizing will do no good, however, I do regret that we had dragged two of your agents into our mess with us instead of just handling it ourselves. Honestly, I should have known that Robert would do anything to get his revenge on us, but I didn't think he would sink to this level and actually Turn."

Gibbs scoffed and shook his head, "it wasn't the first time they were hurt, and I doubt it will be the last. Whether they are human or not, our adversaries are often very, very dangerous and situations like this happen. We've all been kidnapped, drugged, hurt, shot at, tortured, and worse. It's reality for us as it is for you. I, on the other hand, am glad to have met the two of you. Should something like this occur again, in any of our locations or branches, be assured that we will be calling you or your cohorts. It's comforting to know that there are others fighting the 'monsters' that we often think only live in children's books or nightmares," he held out his hand to me, which I shook, before turning towards Rose and shaking hers as well, "I doubt we would be of much help, but should you need our services, you know where we are."

I nodded and turned to Vance who smirked, his toothpick sticking up at a strange angle as he took my hand and clasped it, "agreed with Gibbs. Call us if you need a stubborn federal agent to help clean up a mess or two. I'm sure we could send someone your way. Otherwise, consider us an ally and we will send any cases that seem 'supernatural' your way and keep them out of the hands of the police if possible."

We headed towards the door and grabbed our bags. We stopped at the bottom of the stairs, and Rose gave Ziva and Abby tight hugs. I stood there as Abby gripped me into her grasp. I forced my muscles to move and held her tightly, thanking her for saving Rose one last time before shaking hands with Ziva. We moved to the elevator and went to step in as DiNozzo and McGee stepped out. Rose high-fived the guys before making a gallant bow and side-stepping into the elevator. I shook my head at her theatrics and turned towards the guys, "glad you two made a recovery. Although, it's unfortunate that our enemies put you in that position in the first place."

DiNozzo smirked, "glad to have made it. Second closest call I've ever had. First was easily when Kate and I were exposed Yersinia Pestis, now that sucked. I thought we were gonna die!"

McGee rolled his eyes, "anyway, don't worry too much, Belikov, seriously. This sort of stuff happens to all of us. You guys heading out now?"

I nodded, "I did promise Rose once we took care of things that we would to the 'touristy stuff' then head home. Her and I need a few date nights. We haven't had much time together, just the two of us y'know?"

McGee nodded, "hey, I get it. Well it was great to have met you two. I hope that next time, maybe we can come see your set up and how things work eh? It'd be interesting to see and all."

I laughed, "I'll run it by the Council and see how they feel about that."

"Let me guess, they would be ever so thrilled to have humans slinking around. Even better, human feds who have a penchant for sniffing out trouble and getting right into it, huh?"

I sighed and shook my head, "sadly, I don't see it ending well, but you never know. We'll give you a call if we need some feds' help on a case or two," I stepped into the elevator and waved at the group as the doors slid shut.

"Well, Comrade, now that it's just the two of us, shall we rent a hotel room and really enjoy the sights and sounds of Washington D.C.?"

I smirked and pulled her close to me, giving her a searing kiss that left us both breathless. I looked down into her eyes and winked, "I suppose we could… I am dying to see the Smithsonian, I hear they have an exhibit on the Western expansion that's to die for."

She laughed at me and kissed me one more time, "of course. And, I'll bet they have an exhibit on the Cold War and Soviet Russia. Let's be honest, I've needed some new material to tease you with lately. It's getting rather stale, my jokes about your taste in music."

I just laughed and pulled her out of the building and towards a taxi to cart us off to the hotel I had booked for us for the next few days, "you are quite an extraordinary woman, Roza, and I'm so glad that you're mine."

* * *

 **A/N: Sorry for the time away from the story: school has been crazy and keeping me busy! Anyway, I figured y'all deserved a really long chapter. This will probably be the final chapter. I will be posting a short Epilogue as a sort of tie it up and end it. Let me know what y'all thought? This is my first fanfic, so I'm sure it's not the best, but eh, I had to try right? Thanks for sticking around! I have a few other ideas floating around for another story or two!**

 **Thanks again,**

 **strangemind**


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